摘要:This article studies the causes of the time-varying stiffness of harmonic drive gear and the number of meshing teeth and the meshing length under different torques. Multi-pair tooth meshing characterizes the operating process of the harmonic gear reducer. However, the change of the number of meshing pairs is still not clear. Therefore, the mechanism of the time-varying stiffness of harmonic drive gear was studied using both the theoretical approach and simulation method, and the mathematical model of the time-varying stiffness of harmonic gear reducer was established. Moreover, a method for calculating the torque under different stiffness values was proposed. The relationship between varying torque and time-varying stiffness was established by the number of meshing teeth pairs. The established time-varying stiffness model and the proposed method are feasible, and the effectiveness was proved through experimental research. This study provides theoretical support for the analysis of load distribution in the flexible wheel by the stress–strain loads and related problems.