Application of Virtual Prototype to Heavy-Duty Gearbox Housing Evaluation

Abstract

This paper deals with application of methodology for design of gearbox and its validation by technical experiment. First, the methodology for gearbox was developed and validated on the small single-stage gearbox concept, which enables simple modifiability. The methodology can be divided into three different level (modal analysis, harmonic analysis and multibody simulation). The outputs from previous model increase accuracy of next level of model. Each step of methodology was validated by partial experiment. The sensitivity of input parameters is investigated afterwards to see the limits of methodology. The methodology is applied on a heavy-duty gearbox concept afterward, where all inputs parameters are calculated in similar way as in case of small single-stage gearbox. A partial experimental approach to validate the application of virtual prototype on very complex and extremely loaded component were performed. Based on the results from numerical approach and their comparison to the measurement, the virtual prototype is powerful tool, which can be used in designing phase or in case of optimization.