Targeting the problem of current thermal analysis methods which could not meet the complexity and polytropy of structure of helicopter gearbox

a general thermal analysis method which could quickly obtain the temperature distribution of helicopter gearbox was proposed. The combination of thermal network (TN) and principal component analysis (PCA) taking typical helicopter gearboxes as sample drew a conclusion of three models of general thermal analysis unit-body. Any thermal analysis model of helicopter gearbox of different structures could be quickly and efficiently established by unit-bodies and its derivatives. As an example

the method was applied to a helicopter gearbox. Through comparison of the analytical results and the experiment results

it was found that the temperature distribution of the helicopter gearbox could be high-efficiently obtained by the method

and the maximum error between analysis and experiment was 5.07%

meeting the requirement of engineering calculation for thermal analysis of gearbox.