Frictional Effects on Gear Tooth Contact Analysis

Abstract

The present paper concentrates on the investigations regarding the situations of frictional shear stress of gear teeth and the relevant frictional effects on bending stresses and transmission error in gear meshing. Sliding friction is one of the major reasons causing gear failure and vibration; the adequate consideration of frictional effects is essential for understanding gear contact behavior accurately. An analysis of tooth frictional effect on gear performance in spur gear is presented using finite element method. Nonlinear finite element model for gear tooth contact with rolling/sliding is then developed. The contact zones for multiple tooth pairs are identified and the associated integration situation is derived. The illustrated bending stress and transmission error results with static and dynamic boundary conditions indicate the significant effects due to the sliding friction between the surfaces of contacted gear teeth, and the friction effect can not be ignored. To understand the particular static and dynamic frictional effects on gear tooth contact analysis, some significant phenomena of gained results will also be discussed. The potentially significant contribution of tooth frictional shear stress is presented, particularly in the case of gear tooth contact analysis with both static and dynamic boundary conditions.