A calculation method of gear tooth surface wear considering the center distance error

In gear transmission, manufacturing/installation error and bearing radial clearance led to the variation of the center distance, changing the contact characteristic and subsequently affecting the wear behavior and the fatigue life of the tooth surfaces. In this work, a center distance error model of the gears with the manufacturing/installation error and the bearing radial clearance was derived, and a nonlinear dynamic model of the gear pair considering the variation of the center distance was established. The contact pressure distribution on the tooth surfaces under the dynamic load was obtained by combining the gear meshing principle and the Hertzian contact theory. A general calculation model of the sliding distance between the contact points in the meshing process of the gear pair was derived based on the single point observation method, and the wear depths of the tooth surfaces under the quasi-static and the dynamic load considering the center distance error were determined based on the Archard's adhesive wear model. The presented work found that the wear depth of the tooth surface under the dynamic load fluctuates around the wear depth distribution under the quasi-static load. When considering the center distance error caused by the manufacturing/installation error and the bearing radial clearance, the maximum wear depth at the tooth tip of the driving gear increases as the actual center distance increases, while the maximum wear depth at the tooth root decreases. As for the driven gear, the maximum wear depth at the tooth tip decreases as the actual center distance increases, while the maximum wear depth at the tooth root increases with the actual center distance. The conclusions in this research work can provide a basis for the strength enhancement design of the gears which performance is affected by the center distance error such small-modulus gear pair.