Effects of misalignment on surface wear of spur gears

A surface wear prediction methodology for spur gears is proposed based on which the wear characteristics of the gear pair can be computed efficiently. The methodology combines the finite element method and Archard's formula to predict the surface wear of the spur gear pair. The influences of load levels and wear cycles are investigated to reveal a quantitive relationship between wear and operating parameters. The misalignment of the gear pair is defined and counted in the quasi-static model to investigate its effects on gear wear. The results indicate that the introduction of misalignment may aggravate the load distribution status and accelerate the surface wear. To compensate the negative effects of misalignment, an involute crown modification strategy is proposed and its effectiveness on contact distribution improvement and wear deceleration are validated through wear depths predictions. The numerical simulation finds that the proposed modification strategy can help to decelerate surface wear effectively when the summation of involute crown values C remains within a certain range. Furthermore, a larger C will be required to decrease the wear depth of the gear pair with larger misalignment values.