A novel integrated tool for parametric geometry generation and simulation for induction hardening of gears

Application of 3D finite element method (FEM) simulation for induction hardening of gears is still a time-consuming and an expensive task. The significant cost of a simulation remains in the manual preparation of the 3D description of geometry. In the current work, we propose to complement the numeric simulations with automatic geometry generation based on a parametric representation of a gear and an induction coil. The parameters used to describe a gear are module, pitch diameter, pressure and helical angles. The circular coil is described by the height, external and internal diameters. FEM computations are implemented in PdeLib environment, solving magneto-quasi-static Maxwell׳s equations. A demonstration of the possibilities of such an approach via a parametric study is presented by varying the module of a gear while keeping a constant pitch diameter. A heuristic tuning of heating power-frequency-time is presented here and compared to the classical semi-analytical equations in use.