Finite Element Analysis And Optimum Design Of Traction Gear Box Of Locomotives

Locomotive tractive gearbox is an essential part of the transmission system of locomotive power. With the rapid development of China’s railway industry, the research and development of traction gearbox has been paid more and more attention. As the base of internal transmission parts, traction gearbox occupies an important position in the system of locomotive tractive gearbox. The strength and stiffness of gearbox will affect the running condition of gears and bearings, and thus affect the stability and safety of locomotive running. According to the survey, the gearbox is broken and the oil spills during the locomotive running. Therefore, finite element analysis of the gearbox, which can obtain the strength, stiffness and dynamic characteristics of gearbox, becomes an effective way to solve the problem.In this paper, the structure of the gearbox of a known type locomotive tractive gearbox is optimized through finite element analysis based on Pro/ENGINEER and ANSYS Workbench. The main research contents are as follows.(1) The solid model of gearbox is established and assembled based on Pro/ENGINEER, and is simplified according to the principle of model simplification.(2) The model of gearbox is put into workbench through the seamless connection between Pro/E and ANSYS software. After setting the material properties of the model, meshing the model, loading boundary conditions, the static structure of gearbox is analyzed. And then, the stress and strain of gearbox is got, which can determine whether the intensity of the gearbox is in accordance with the locomotive running conditions.(3) The constrained modal of gearbox is analyzed after constraining the finite element model of gearbox. And the natural vibration frequencies and the corresponding type are got in order to obtain the dynamic characteristics of gearbox.(4) Taking the quality of gearbox and the maximum equivalent stress as the output variables, taking the minimum quality of gearbox as a target, the structure parameters of gearbox is optimized to reduce the quality of gearbox and then reduce the quality of locomotive spring.This topic researches the finite element analysis and structure optimization of locomotive tractive gearbox. On the premise of ensuring the strength and stiffness, the quality of gearbox is reduced and the engineering materials is saved. It provides some ideas and methods for the similar research and has certain value of engineering practice.