I want to measure the amount of deflection (Strain/Stress) in spiral bevel gear tooth, when they mesh together, under load. Any non contact type of sensors r available? I have to install it inside the gear box...
A common approach is to attach strain gauges to the root of the gear's teeth. Using a proper mechanical model of the gear (e.g. FE) you can then compute other quantities of interest.
I do not know any non-contact method that could work, as inside of the housing during engagement of the gears there is usually a lot of lubricant spilling around making optical measurements difficult.
The following infermation may be useful for your studies
Abstract:We propose to use a non-contact vibrational sensor to detect vibrations and deflections A gear evaluation system which includes means for measuring gear rotational speed and gear case vibrational displacement associated with gear mesh action. A signal is displacement associated with gear mesh action. A signal is developed that represents the time series average signal synchronized to the relevant gear shaft speed. This signal is passed through a bandpass filter set to pass a signal at the gear mesh frequency (for the particular gear under evaluation). After rectification the output signal provides information relating to average vibrational levels associated with gear mesh action and deviations from the average levels.