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Eric Frank

MAE 4333
02/05/2015

Assessment of a Service Failure: Spur Gear

A damaged spur gear was inspected to determine the cause of failure. No background
information was given about the material or its operating conditions, and the root cause of the
failure was determined from visual inspection.
The gear was examined thoroughly using the naked eye and close-up digital photographs.
Several of the gear teeth were found to be in different stages of cracking. These cracks were the
main focus of the analysis. A portion of one tooth was completely dismembered, and the
resulting exposed fracture pattern was studied to determine the type of failure.
1. Tooth fractures/cracking observations:
a. The geometry, location, and orientation of every tooth crack was similar.
The majority of the exposed fracture, located nearest to the face of the
gear, was oriented at 90 to the loading direction. A small portion of this
crack made a 45 transition.
b. A consistently shiny surface was prevalent throughout most of the
exposed fracture. Only a small amount contained in the 45 transition
zone was rough (Fig. 4).
c. Concentric radial beech marks were present in the 90 zone. Concentric
U-shaped marks were observed in the 45 zone. These marks were
progressively spread further apart starting at the face of the gear, towards
the center along the tooth length.
d. Some of the teeth were cracked almost all of the way through. The gap
size of the crack on these teeth was small.
2. Other notable observations:
a. The appearance and weight of the gear suggest that the material is a
ferrous alloy, most likely steel.
b. The gear surface is clean, and no signs of major corrosion were observed.
c. The faces of the gear teeth were free of pitting, excessive wear marks or
scuffing, and no irregularities in the profile shape was present.
d. The internal splines that mate the gear to a shaft appeared to have no
visible damage.

The absence of corrosion indicated that the gear was lubricated properly during
operation. The normal wear patterns on the teeth working surfaces were an indication that the

Eric Frank
MAE 4333
02/05/2015

Assessment of a Service Failure: Spur Gear

gear was not placed under excessive or misaligned loads. The undamaged internal splines
suggested that the gear was not placed under any major impact loading.
The observations of the tooth fractures proved to be the deciding factor when identifying
the type of failure. The presence of beech marks on the shiny surfaces showed that the failure
occurred over a long period of time. The orientation of the beech marks pointed to the origin of
the fracture, which was determined to be at the root fillet, at the face of the gear. The fact that all
but one of the gear teeth were still intact, despite them all being cracked almost completely
through; along with the small fracture zone observed, showed that the stresses present were
below the tensile stress of the material. The transition from flat fracture to slant fracture showed
that there was a transition from plane strain to plane stress during this slow failure. The
combination of all of these factors proved that the gear failed due to cyclic bending fatigue.
The similar geometric features and location of the fractures proved that the tooth failures
were not random, which eliminated possibility of material defects as the root cause. The fact that
all of the cracks initiated in the root fillets was an indication that the failure cause was due to an
abrupt discontinuity in the tooth geometry. This caused high stress concentrations and eventual
slow cracking in these regions.
To reduce the possibility of cyclic fatigue failure, I would recommend changing the
machining process to enlarge the fillet radius. This would lower stress concentrations and
increase gear life.

References

Eric Frank
MAE 4333
02/05/2015

Assessment of a Service Failure: Spur Gear

1. Richard W. Hertzburg, Richard P. Vinci, Jason L. Hertzberg,


Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering Materials (5th ed.)
Chapter 10, Fatigue Crack Propagation, pp 559-571

2. Fatigue Failures, Failure Analysis and Prevention,


Vol. 11, ASM Handbook, ASM International, 2002

Eric Frank
MAE 4333
02/05/2015

Assessment of a Service Failure: Spur Gear

Loa
d
Rotation

Figure 1: Front View

Figure 2: Side View

Eric Frank
MAE 4333
02/05/2015

Assessment of a Service Failure: Spur Gear

Concentric Radial
Lines
c)

b)

a)

U-Shaped Concentric
Lines
Figure 3: Close-up of beech marks

Figure 4: Close-up of crack transition


zones: a) crack front; b) 45 transition;
c) final fracture region

Eric Frank
MAE 4333
02/05/2015

Assessment of a Service Failure: Spur Gear

Eric Frank
MAE 4333
02/05/2015

Assessment of a Service Failure: Spur Gear

Figure 5: Various stages of fatigue cracking were present, originating at the root fillets. Circled
areas show the crack origins.

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