TLIFE: a Program for Spur, Helical and Spiral Bevel Transmission Life and Reliability Modeling

This report describes a computer program, 'TLIFE', which models the service life of a transmission. The program is written in ANSI standard Fortran 77 and has an executable size of about 157 K bytes for use on a personal computer running DOS. It can also be compiled and executed in UNIX. The computer program can analyze any one of eleven unit transmissions either singly or in a series combination of up to twenty-five unit transmissions. Metric or English unit calculations are performed with the same routines using consistent input data and a units flag. Primary outputs are the dynamic capacity of the transmission and the mean lives of the transmission and of the sum of its components. The program uses a modular approach to separate the load analyses from the system life calculations. The program and its input and output data files are described herein. Three examples illustrate its use. A development of the theory behind the analysis in the program is included after the examples.