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Team 39

Team Members

Faculty Advisor

Daniel Gallagher
Rocky Mayer
Ted Zhao
Derek Zielinski

SeungYeon Kang

Sponsor

Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation

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Torsionally Compliant Gear for Torque Split Gearbox

The objective of this project is to design and test a torsionally compliant spur gear to be used within the gearbox on the Sikorsky CH-53k King Stallion. This helicopter utilizes a split torque gearbox, which takes the power from three engines and divides it into four separate spur gears that act on the main rotor gear. These gears are connected to a flexible quill shaft, which allows for select amounts of rotational deformation and ensures that each gear transfers the same amount of power to the main rotor gear. The task is to move the torsional compliance from the quill shaft to the web of the gear so that the gear is torsionally soft but radially stiff. Within our project, Ansys FEA software and physical testing was utilized to calculate the torsional and radial stiffness of each of our design considerations, and the design consideration that performed the best was given as the recommendation to the sponsor.