Stress calculation for plastic helical gears under a real transverse contact ratio

Calculation methods of plastic helical gears with a real transverse contact ratio have never been studied in depth. The methods used in some references assume a uniform load distribution along the line of contact or don’t take into consideration the effect of premature mesh between one or more pair of teeth during engagement, which is not in good agreement with numerical results. This paper is focused on analysis of plastic helical gears. The nonuniform load distribution obtained from the proposed mathematical model is based on the calculation of the real contact ratio representing the real number of pairs of teeth in contact. This model also leads to the distribution of the tooth bending stress and the contact stress along the area of contact.