Influence of Position Errors on EHD Lubrication in Spiral Bevel Gears Available to Purchase

The thermal elastohydrodynamic analysis of lubrication is applied to investigate the influence of misalignments of the meshing members on lubrication in spiral bevel gears. The calculation is based on the simultaneous solution of the Reynolds, elasticity, energy, and Laplace’s equations. The full thermal EHD lubrication analysis is applied, therefore, the oil viscosity variation with respect to pressure and temperature and the density variation with respect to pressure are included. By using the corresponding computer program, the influence of pinion’s running offset and axial adjustment errors, and angular position error of pinion axis on maximum oil film pressure and temperature, EHD load carrying capacity, and on power losses in the oil film is investigated. On the basis of the obtained results it can be concluded that the EHD load carrying capacity and the friction factor are very sensitive to misalignments of the mating members in the spiral bevel gear pair, the friction factor is reduced by the increase of EHD load carrying capacity and vise versa, and the maximum inlet oil temperature is almost insensitive to the misalignments.