DOI: https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2014.158
Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1378
Date of Award
9-2014
Degree Name
MS in Mechanical Engineering
Department/Program
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor
Xi Wu
Abstract
With this thesis the research at the engineering department is continued, based on previous thesis projects. These projects were considering the possibility of simulation gears with rigid bodies. After researches with different emphasizes on the rigid body simulation, the gained knowledge showed limitations of the rigid body model. Gear failures are very diverse and the actual simulation technique could not represent all necessary failure modes that can occur. That led to this thesis as a research project to find a way to detect and analyze the failure modes that cannot be considered with the current rigid body approach. With the flexible body theory and simulation tools (MSC:Adams) this gap of gear failure detection simulation can be closed. The objective is, making it possible to simulate all failure modes of a gear that can occur. Additionally the previous project on this topic were using gears of small laboratory conditions. An industry sector has been picked to work on a practical application. This application is a wind turbine gearbox. These gearboxes have common run-time errors which influences the profitability of the power generation. To model this system a gear design guide for wind turbine gearboxes is elaborated.