An adhesive wear model for helical gears in line-contact mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication

Adhesive wear in mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) has been one of the most prominent problems for heavy-loaded helical gears. However, this issue was rarely investigated in previous researches. In this work, an adhesive wear model for helical gears is established in line-contact mixed EHL. The contact parameters of the pinion and gear are derived according to the equivalent tapered roller contact model, and the load is attained in consideration of the varying contact line ratio. Then the asperity contact pressure is calculated according to Hertz's elastic contact theory and load sharing. Moreover, the sliding distances of the points on tooth surface of driving pinion and driven gear are achieved by a single point observation method, and Archard theory in dry contact is extended to the mixed lubrication to estimate the wear rate in mixed EHL by using fractional film defect. The modified Archard's wear model is then employed in formulating and accounting for the gear tooth wear. Effects of surface roughness, geometrical parameters and working parameters on wear depth of the driving pinion are furtherly investigated. The results show that the wear depth in mixed EHL is lower than that under dry contact, which indicates that tooth wear can be reduced with the reasonable lubricants. As the surface roughness becomes large, the asperity contact pressure, the tooth surface temperature and wear depth are increased. Additionally, the wear depths decrease with the increase in module, helix angle, pressure angle, tooth width or rotation speed but increase with input torque.