Abstract: The transmission performance, contact stress and bending stress of face-gear drive under torque are studied. Based on the calculated results of Hertz contact theory, a method to get reasonable amounts of grid for finite element method (FEM), is introduced. According to the contact ratio, it investigates the applications of FEM with five teeth, and one with seven teeth, which are used to research on the loaded meshing simulation of face-gear drive. The dangerous positions for contact stress and bending stress of face-gear are found, and their values are given out. The transmission performance of face-gear drive, such as contact ratio, transmission error and the loading distribution coefficient, can be computed by this method. When the face gear is under different torques, their relationship to loadings can be got. The results of research turn out that, the grid size of finite element model, which is decided by Hertz contact theory, is reasonable. The values of stresses in the meshing simulation are reliable, and the conclusions about the transmission performance of face-gear drive are correct.

Key words: Bending stress, Contact stress, Face gear, Finite element method, Transmission performance