Geometric contact pattern estimation for gear drives

The proposed method has been tested with a dedicated FEM software package capable of producing a very accurate contact pattern estimation of the contact pattern under load. Extensive simulations have shown that, once the optimal marking compound shape has been identified, the proposed method computes a reliable contact pattern even for very different surface geometries (e.g. an ease-off on the pinion surface) and assembly errors. The computational cost of the entire procedure is about two orders of magnitude lower than that required to run the full FEM analysis.