Abstract:

The operation of a jack - up rig serving for offshore petroleum drilling and production is governed by performance determinants such as the lifting and lowering processes due a to rack and pinion mechanism. Therefore, the durability of the rack and pinion system is considered as a decisive factor for the working efficiency of the jackup. In order to improve this parameter, we take advantage of the Fillet method to probperly calculate and select the radius of curvature between tooth surface and the tooth root (or filler radius) so that the stress and deformation at the contact area this is minimized. Numerical calculations in the specific sofware Solidworks software and Abaqus are employed to simulate the joint motion between rack and pinion. Simulation results allow to determine the optimal fillet radius in the pursuit of reducing stress and plastic deformation at contact areas of the teeth and improving the life span of the rack and pinion system