The Phase 2 effort will be used to advance the material and design technologies that were explored in the Phase 1 study of hybrid gears. In this hybrid approach, the conventional metallic web is replaced with a composite element. This alternative design generates a significant weight reduction and the potential for the reduction of noise and vibration. The Phase 2 program will make the first large scale hybrid gears that can be run in a rotating gear rig with imposed torque loading. Several full scale gears will be made as well as full scale test elements. Test results from full scale testing will be applied to computer simulation models. This effort will apply topology optimization techniques to predict the best design of the gear elements. This should enable significantly more efficient designs than those fabricated and tested in the Phase 1 program. This program will also explore a power transmission system that integrates gear and shaft into a single structure. It is hoped that this integrated system will benefit weight, noise and tolerance of misalignments.
Potential NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) This research offers many attractive benefits for rotorcraft systems. These benefits include large weight savings which directly corresponds to increased performance. This research also potentially decreases the amount of individual parts in the gearbox system, by co-molding and directly attaching features. Decreased parts directly affect maintenance costs and intervals. These benefits would be beneficial to both NASA applications as well as commercial rotorcraft systems. There is virtually no rotorcraft system that couldn't incorporate this research into their existing or new systems.
Potential NON-NASA Commercial Applications:
: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) While the focus of this work is on rotorcraft, if proven successful this technology could be applied to gears across many consumer industries such as industrial and automotive.
Technology Taxonomy Mapping: (NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.) Composites
