Investigations On Gear Tooth Surface And Bulk

Temperatures Using ANSYS

P R Thyla
PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, INDIA
R Rudramoorthy
PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, INDIA

Abstract
In gears, the temperature at the conjunction zone between the meshing tooth faces governs the imminent
scuffing failure. Failure due to high tooth temperatures can be prevented with the knowledge of
temperature distribution in gear teeth under operation. In this work, the prediction of bulk and surface
temperatures of the gear tooth is carried out using finite element method, using ANSYS. The investigations
are carried out on the tooth of the worm wheel of different sizes of single reduction worm gear boxes under
various operating conditions

Introduction
Conventional gear designs are based on the bending and surface fatigue failure criteria. Failure due to
bending is avoided by ensuring in the design that the maximum bending stress in the tooth is lesser than the
bending strength of the material. Limiting the Hertzian contact stress induced in the gear tooth to be below
the contact compressive strength of the gear material ensures safety in respect of surface fatigue. Dynamic
load factors are included in the design to account for effects due to dynamic loading. But these designs do
not consider the thermal behaviour of the gears. But in gears that are operated at high speeds and loads,
temperature can be of concern and may be a limiting factor. Also, in worm gear drives, due to the large
amount of heat generated due sliding friction, temperatures may exceed safe limits during operation.
Hence, for gear drives that operate at high speeds and under heavy loads, and in worm gear drives in which
the amount of heat generated due to sliding friction is more, it is essential to know the thermal behaviour of
the drives at the design stage itself so as to know safe limits of load and speed.

Procedure
In this work, finite element thermal analysis is carried out on a tooth of the worm wheel to predict the
temperature distribution in the tooth. The problem of determining the bulk temperature is considered as a
steady-state heat transfer problem in which a state of thermal equilibrium is reached after many cycles of
revolution. In order to predict the bulk and the surface temperatures of the gear tooth, a single gear tooth of
the worm gear is modeled using UNWINS method of involute profile generation and the solid model
generated by coordinate transformation. The reason for modeling a single gear tooth is that the gear tooth is
symmetrical in shape and identical heat generation occurs in all the teeth of the gear. The solid model of the
tooth of the worm wheel is discretised using 3D, 10-noded tetrahedral elements, ie., SOLID87 element. The
finite element mesh of the gear tooth is shown in Figure 1. A convergence test was carried out, by varying
the element size so as to ensure correctness of mesh density. The results of the test is depicted in Figure 2.
 Figure 1. Finite element mesh of the gear tooth

100

80
Temperature

60

40

20

0
2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Elements

Figure 2. Convergence test

Boundary Conditions

In the steady state thermal analysis of the gear tooth, the frictional heat generated and the convective heat
transfer from the different surfaces of the tooth form the boundary conditions.
The frictional heat input to the gear tooth-working surface is calculated using the following analysis. The
instantaneous heat generated per unit area, per unit time due to sliding of the two gear teeth is given by

Heat generation rate Q = Vs W f

with the sliding velocity Vs given by, Vs = Vw / cos λ

The frictional force Wf is given by Wf = µ W, W being the normal load.

The coefficient of friction at the mesh is dependent on the sliding velocity and the viscosity of the lubricant.
It is estimated as
µ = 1.6/(υ0.15 * Ve 0.15 * Vs .35 * Rr0.5)

with the entraining velocity Ve and the rolling radius Rr determined as

Ve = 0.524*d*n*sin (λ) sin (φ)

Rr = 0.5*D*[(1/cos (λ)) 2]* sin (φ), where,
d = pitch circle diameter of the worm, m
D = pitch circle diameter of the worm wheel, m
n = speed of the worm, rpm
υ = viscosity of lubricant, centistokes
Vs = Sliding velocity in ft/min
Ve = entraining velocity in ft/min
Rr = relative radius of curvature on the normal section, inches
λ = lead angle of worm, degrees
φ = pressure angle, degrees

The distribution of the heat generated to the two mating teeth depends on the velocity and material
properties of the gears. A partition factor is used to estimate the proportion of the heat that goes into the
worm and that which goes into the wheel.
In a gear tooth, different portions of the tooth have different cooling rates. The heat transfer coefficients for
sides, top land and flanks of the gear are estimated as follows. The heat transfer coefficient (hs) on the
gear hub surface is established from the principle of rotating disks as

hs = Nu * K * (ω/ν)0.5

where,
Nu = Nusselt number,
ω = angular velocity of the rotating disk, rad/s
K = thermal conductivity, W/m2K
ν = kinematic viscosity, ms/s

In a gearbox with splash type of lubrication, the wheel rotates in air. Hence, a Nusselts number of 0.5,
which corresponds to air, is adopted. There may be a slight error in this assumption since the cooling of the
gear surfaces due to the fling-off of the lubricant is not accounted.

Because of the uneven gear tooth surface, it is difficult to estimate the heat transfer coefficient (ht) on the
flank and lands of the tooth. Hence, an approximate estimate is based from the principle of flow across
cylinders, which is given by
ht = Nu *K/D
 Nu = C * Rem Pr0.333
where,
Re = Reynolds number
Pr = Prandtl number
C,m = constants

Analysis
Using the Unwin’s method, gear teeth were modeled for four different sizes of single reduction worm gear
boxes and the finite element mesh created. The relevant boundary conditions were estimated and applied on
the finite element model and steady state thermal analyses were carried out. The investigations were made
with variations in load, speed and viscosity grade of lubricant.

Analysis Results & Discussion

Temperature Distribution in Tooth

The temperature distribution in a tooth of the worm wheel of an 8-inch worm gearbox is shown in Figure 4.
The figure shows the temperature profile at steady state.
From the figure, it can be seen that a large volume of the tooth is at the same temperature, which is much
lesser than the highest temperature. The hottest zone is confined to a thin skin of the gear tooth and
prevails over a small region at the mid-section of the tooth face The peak temperature occurs at the middle
of the face width, at a point below the pitch line. The pattern of temperature distribution is more or less
the same in wheels of different sizes, and also under different operating conditions. The temperature
distributions at various sections along the face width of the gear tooth are shown in Figure 5. The
temperature at the root is more than the temperature at the tip in gears of all sizes, and under all the
different operating conditions. The difference in temperature between the tip and the root differs with the
applied load and input speed conditions. The difference increases with increase in load.

Figure 3. Temperature profile in gear tooth of 3-inch gearbox

Figure 4. Isotherms at different sections of the gear tooth
 300

Temerature rise, C
200

100

0
0 100 200

Output torqu, Nm

Bulk Surface

Figure 5. Variation of tooth temperature rise with applied load

300
Temperature rise, C

200

100

0
700 900 1100 1300
Input speed, rpm

Bulk Surface

Figure 6. Variation of tooth temperature rise with input speed

Temperature rise, C

200

100

0
100 200 300 400 500
Kinematic Viscosity of oil, cSt

Bulk Surface

Figure 7. Variation of tooth temperature rise with oil viscosity

 Influence of operating parameters on tooth temperature

The gear tooth temperature is dependent on a large number of parameters. In this work, the effect of the
three operating parameter, namely, applied load, input speed and the viscosity of the lubricating oil used are
studied. The variations of the bulk and the surface temperatures of the tooth of the gear in one of the test
gearboxes for different values of applied load, input speed and the viscosity of the lubricating oil used are
shown in Figure 5 to Figure 7. It can be seen that both the bulk temperature rise and the surface temperature
rise increase linearly with increase in the applied load. They also increase with increase in input speed and
decrease with an increase in the viscosity of the oil used, but the degree of variation in these two cases is
very less compared to that due to change in load

Conclusion
In this work, a methodology has been developed to predict the bulk and the surface temperatures in gear
teeth using finite element analysis using ANSYS. The tooth frictional losses and different convective heat
transfer coefficients for different portions of the tooth form the input to the model. Steady state thermal
analysis is carried out on gear teeth of different sizes of commercial gearboxes under different operating
conditions to predict the temperature distribution. The methodology developed can be used for evaluating
the thermal characteristics of gearboxes at the design stage itself, eliminating the need for physical
experimentation. These virtual experiments aid in the rating of gearboxes for their thermal capacity and to
design cooling requirements.

References
1) Alastair Cameron , 1981 “Basic Lubrication Theory”, 3 rd Edition, Ellis Hardwood
2) Patir, N., and Cheng, H. S., “Prediction of the Bulk Temperature in Spur Gears Based on Finite
Element Temperature Analysis,” ASLE Transactions, Vol. 22.pp. 25-36, 1979
3) Townsend, D. P., and Akin, L. S., “Analytical and Experimental Spur Gear Tooth Temperature as
Affected by Operating Variable,” ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, Vol. 103, pp. 216-226,
1981
4) Wang, K.L., and Cheng, H.S., “Numerical solution to the dynamic load, film thickness and surface
temperature in spur gears – Part I, Analysis”, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, vol 103,
pp177-187, 1981
5) Wang, K.L., and Cheng, H.S., “Numerical solution to the dynamic load, film thickness and surface
temperature in spur gears – Part II, Results”, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, vol 103, pp188-
194, 1981