Investigation and simulation of the temperature influence on the excitational behavior of plastic gears

A trend in the use of plastic gears in gearboxes with high power density has been observed due to the increasing development of high-performance plastics. Simulation methods for calculating the operational behavior and studies on the excitation behavior of plastic gears in power transmissions do barely exist within the state of the art. Current tooth contact analyses reach their limits with linear-elastic model assumptions on which they are based when calculating plastic gears, because plastic gears have nonlinear material behavior. The report comprises experimental and simulative investigations on the influence of material nonlinearity on the quasi-static and dynamic excitation behavior of plastic gears. Gear variants made of austempered ductile iron (ADI 900) and polyetheretherketone (PEEK) are investigated at two different oil temperatures to determine the influence of material nonlinearity as a result of a temperature increase on the excitation behavior. The experimentally determined quasi-static excitation behavior is compared with state-of-the-art simulation methods in order to quantify their calculation quality. In addition to a calculation based on a linear-elastic material model, the quasi-static excitation behavior of the plastic gears is determined using a nonlinear material model. A comparison of the simulative and experimental results shows that the calculation of the quasi-static excitation behavior of the plastic gears based on a linear-elastic material model leads to higher deviations compared to a nonlinear material modeling.