Grooved cam mechanism with a translating follower having an added ternary-roller intermediate link

The paper presents an analytical approach for designing grooved cam mechanisms with a modified arrangement of the common translating follower. That is, an intermediate link having three rollers is added between the cam and the common follower. On the basis of an existing cam mechanism with a common roller follower, an intermediate link that has three rollers is added between the cam and the common follower. Such a cam mechanism has two set of profile and can create multiple contact points between the cam and the follower at any instant. The two sets of profiles of such a cam mechanism can serve as the grooved types. Since the follower has three rollers that can simultaneously contact the cam at any instant, it can be positive driven along the guided groove of cam contour. The contact forces and contact stresses of such cam mechanisms are analyzed to illustrate the advantage of spreading force transmission and reducing contact stress of this uncommon follower. The obtained results indicate that the contact stress at the surface of the cam and the follower for such a cam mechanism can be reduced by 30% to 47% in comparison to those of cam mechanism with a common translating roller follower. In conclusion, the cam mechanism with a translating follower having an added ternary-roller intermediate link can be a preferable choice for the applications that follower is against heavy loads or move at high speed.

OPTIMAL DESIGN OF CYLINDRICAL GEARS WITH CONVEX-CONCAVE CONTACT: OBJECTIVE FUNCTION AND VARIABLES PLANNING

Reducing the mass and dimensions of gears is an actual task of modern mechanical engineering. One of the perspective ways to solve it is the use of gearing with a convex-concave contact of the teeth. Therefore, the study is devoted to the development of methods for the optimal design of cylindrical gears with convex-concave contact of the working surfaces. Optimality criteria: minimum contact stresses and (or) minimum relative sliding velocities, taking into account design, geometrical and technological constraints. C-C gearing was chosen as the object of research. It was proposed by the Slovak scientists M. Boshanski and M. Veresh. An objective function is constructed for the case of minimizing contact stresses. The optimality criterion is formulated as follows: contact stresses σH in the mesh must take the minimum possible value when all constraints are met. An objective function is also constructed for the case of minimizing the relative sliding velocities of profiles. The optimality criterion is formulated as follows: the relative sliding s velocities of profiles λ at the extreme points of mesh must take the minimum possible value when all the constraints are met. Variables planning are defined. These are pressure angle at the pole αС, the curvature radius at the upper part of contact path rkh, and the curvature radius at the lower part of contact path rkd. A method for solving the problem of optimal design is chosen. The method of probing the space of design parameters was chosen from all the variety. The points of the LPτ-sequence are used as test points. The method allows you to operate with a significant number of parameters – up to 51, provides a sufficiently large number of evenly distributed test points – up to 220. In further studies, it is planned to form a system of constraints on variables planning, to develop methods and algorithms for solving the problem. Also carry out test and verification calculations to confirm and evaluate the theoretical results. Keywords: gear, convex-concave contact, optimal design, objective function, variables planning

Relative contact width evaluation of end hemispherical cavities rollers as an indication of Hertzian contact pressure

In a recent investigation, the end hemispherical cavities (EHC) rollers exhibited better strength against fracture than hollow rollers. Furthermore, EHC rollers looked promising from a higher fatigue life aspect than conventional solid rollers in a simulation study. Therefore, it necessitated further exploration of the EHC roller concept and to this end, in the present investigation, the contact widths of EHC rollers were relatively evaluated to judge its contact stresses' behavior with respect to the solid roller because the contact stresses are responsible for the fatigue life of rolling bearings. In the experiments, the contact footprints were obtained by forcing specimens of rollers against chemically etched surfaces and were examined by a microscope for measurement of contact widths. The experimental trials were performed with individual roller-on-plate tests and also with full-bearing samples. The etch correction factor was used to correct anomalies of real and observed contact widths due to etching film thickness. The parabolic relationships were established for roller variants which yielded constants signifying their relative ranks. The contact semi-widths, thus derived from corrected experimental results of individual roller-on-plate tests, demonstrated good agreement (<5%) with those derived from simulation results. The results of full-bearing sample tests for roller variants also ranked same as individual roller-on-plate tests. The encouraging results of contact semi-width assuredly favor the prospects of relatively higher fatigue life in case of EHC rollers.

Biomechanical Comparison of Kinematic and Mechanical Knee Alignment Techniques in a Computer Simulation Medial Pivot Total Knee Arthroplasty Model

Several concepts may be used to restore normal knee kinematics after total knee arthroplasty. One is a kinematically aligned (KA) technique, which restores the native joint line and limb alignment, and the other is the use of a medial pivot knee (MPK) design, with a ball and socket joint in the medial compartment. This study aimed to compare motions, contact forces, and contact stress between mechanically aligned (MA) and KA (medial tilt 3° [KA3] and 5° [KA5]) models in MPK. An MPK design was virtually implanted with MA, KA3, and KA5 in a validated musculoskeletal computer model of a healthy knee, and the simulation of motion and contact forces was implemented. Anteroposterior (AP) positions, mediolateral positions, external rotation angles of the femoral component relative to the tibial insert, and tibiofemoral contact forces were evaluated at different knee flexion angles. Contact stresses on the tibial insert were calculated using finite element analysis. The AP position at the medial compartment was consistent for all models. From 0° to 120°, the femoral component in KA models showed larger posterior movement at the lateral compartment (0.3, 6.8, and 17.7 mm in MA, KA3, and KA5 models, respectively) and larger external rotation (4.2°, 12.0°, and 16.8° in the MA, KA3, and KA5 models, respectively) relative to the tibial component. Concerning the mediolateral position of the femoral component, the KA5 model was positioned more medially. The contact forces at the lateral compartment of all models were larger than those at the medial compartment at >60° of knee flexion. The peak contact stresses on the tibiofemoral joint at 90° and 120° of knee flexion were higher in the KA models. However, the peak contact stresses of the KA models at every flexion angle were <20 MPa. The KA technique in MPK can successfully achieve near-normal knee kinematics; however, there may be a concern for higher contact stresses on the tibial insert.

Utilizing Ultrasonic Waves in the Investigation of Contact Stresses, Areas, and Embedment of Spheres in Manufactured Materials Replicating Proppants and Brittle Rocks

In the oil and gas industry, hydraulic fracturing (HF) is a common application to create additional permeability in unconventional reservoirs. Using proppant in HF requires understanding the interactions with rocks such as shale, and the mechanical aspects of their contacts. However, these studies are limited in literature and inconclusive. Therefore, the current research aims to apply a novel method, mainly ultrasound, to investigate the proppant embedment phenomena for different rocks. The study used proppant materials that are susceptible to fractures (glass) and others that are hard and do not break (steel). Additionally, the materials used to represent brittle shale rocks (polycarbonate and phenolic) were based on the ratio of elastic modulus to yield strength (E/Y). A combination of experimental and numerical modeling was used to investigate the contact stresses, deformation, and vertical displacement. The results showed that the relation between the stresses and ultrasound reflection coefficient follows a power-law equation, which validated the method application. From the experiments, plastic deformation was encountered in phenolic surfaces despite the corresponding contacted material. Also, the phenolic stresses showed a difference compared to polycarbonate for both high and low loads, which is explained by the high attenuation coefficient of phenolic that limited the quality of the reflected signal. The extent of vertical displacements surrounding the contact zone was greater for the polycarbonate materials due to the lower E/Y, while the phenolic material was limited to smaller areas not exceeding 50% of polycarbonate for all tested load conditions. Therefore, the study confirms that part of the contact energy in phenolic material was dissipated in the plastic deformation, indicating greater proppant embedment, and leading to a loss in fracture conductivity for rocks of higher E/Y.

Three-dimensional contact stresses of a slick solid rubber tyre on a rigid surface

The main aim of this paper is to quantify the three-dimensional contact stresses imposed by a single slow-moving (or rolling) slick solid rubber tyre on a relatively rough contact surface, such as stiff asphalt concrete or airport concrete surfacing layers. The results indicated the tyre-contact patch of a slick solid rubber tyre to be of rectangular shape for a vertical tyre loading range between 20 kN and 100 kN. The rectangular tyre contact shape was confirmed with static paper prints, as well as an electronically measured contact patch with the stress-in-motion pad device. The study included load calibration using a mass load scale, and a stress-in-motion device. These were used with an existing full-scale accelerated pavement test device, referred to as the heavy vehicle simulator. In addition, simplistic multi-layer linear elastic modelling was used to quantify differences between stress and strain responses of two types of two relatively 'stiff' based pavements, such as an asphalt concrete base and Portland cement concrete base, on similar subbase and subgrade layers. Notable differences were obtained, which could potentially influence further detailed studies on the performance of full-scale slick solid rubber tyres on typical multi-layered pavements.

Contact Stresses and Dynamic Analysis of involute Spur Gear with FEM Approach

This paper investigates the characteristics of a gear system including contact stresses, bending stresses, and the transmission errors of gears in mesh. The objective of this paper is to compare values of contact stress and dynamic analysis obtained by theoretical hertz equation with the ANSYS result. A two stage spur gear box has been designed for material handling application by manual calculation and then performs contact stress and dynamic Simulation to ensure its reliable working. The results of the two-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis from ANSYS and theoretical results are well comparable. Keywords: involute, spur gear, contact stress, dynamic analysis, finite element analysis

DETERMINISTIC ANALYTICAL MODEL OF RESISTANCE TO DEEP CONTACT FATIGUE OF A STRESSED MATERIAL

The stress state of the surface layer in the contact zone of the mating teeth of cylindrical gears is considered. It is shown that under contact loading, the stress state of the surface layer is inhomogeneous and changes with the distance from the surface. It is established that the value of the equivalent tangential stresses does not depend on the standard size of the gears, but is determined by the surface contact stresses σH. Moreover, the depth of occurrence of the maximum equivalent tangential stresses depends on the gear modulus (the reduced radius of curvature of the mating surfaces of the teeth) and, to a lesser extent, on the surface contact stresses σH. The inhomogeneity of the stress state and the structural characteristics of the diffusion layers of surface-hardened gears is a prerequisite for the appearance of critical zones in them, in which fatigue processes of contact failure can originate and develop. A deterministic analytical model of the resistance to deep contact fatigue of hardened tooth surfaces is proposed, based on determining the service life of the gear before the appearance of progressive deep contact chipping of the active tooth surfaces with a regulated variation of the microhardness values in different zones of the diffusion layer.

Grooved Cam With a Translating Follower Having an Added Ternary-Roller Intermediate Link

The paper presents an analytical approach for designing grooved cam mechanisms with a modified arrangement of the common translating follower. That is, an extraneous intermediate link that has three rollers is added between the cam and the common follower. On the basis of an existing cam mechanism with a common roller follower, an extraneous intermediate link that has three rollers is added between the cam and the common follower. Such a cam mechanism has two set of profile and can creating multiple contact points between the cam and the follower at any instant. The two sets of profiles of such a cam mechanism can serve as the grooved types. Since the follower has three rollers that can simultaneously contact the cam at any instant, it can be positive driven along the guided groove of cam contour. The contact forces and contact stresses of such cam mechanisms are analyzed to illustrate the advantage of spreading force transmission and reducing contact stress of this uncommon follower. The obtained results indicate that the contact stress at the surface of the cam and the follower for such a cam mechanism can be reduced by 34% to 42% in comparison to those of cam mechanism with a common translating roller follower.