STRESS ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENTIAL GEAR FOR MOTOR VEHICLE – DRIVE WHEEL POWER TRANSMISSION USING SOLID WORKS SOFTWARE

This paper presents a study of the stress analysis of differential gear used in motor vehicle for the transmission of engine power to all drive wheels. In motor vehicles, the differential gear provides equal power to all drive wheels while allowing each driving wheel to turn at a different angle and velocity. A vehicle's wheels rotate at different velocity, especially while turning on corners. Differential gears fail when the tension at gear tooth exceeds its safety limit. Therefore, this work shall determine the maximum capacity at specified load and gears analysis shall be carried out to present information of the minimal stress that should not be exceeded on gear teeth in order to prevent gear failure. The study adopted comparative analysis of the results obtained on different materials used for differential gear manufacture (i.e., maraging steel, aluminium alloy and cast steel) and determine a suitable material appropriate for differential gear manufacture with very low propensity to failure.