Study of Transient Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication of Spur Gears under Impact Load

Spur gear contacts experience a number of time-varying contact parameters including the load, surface velocities, radii of curvature, and slide-to-roll ratio. It is very hard to obtain transient elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) solution of spur gears. In this study, a transient EHL model of involute spur gear tooth contacts is proposed. A full transient EHL solution of involute spur gear under impact load is obtained by utilizing the multigrid technique. The influences of impact load on the EHL of spur gear are analyzed in the paper. The numerical results show that the approach impact load has strong transient influence on the oil film thickness and pressure distribution between contact zones. The impact load may lead to instantaneous lubrication film deterioration between contact teeth of involute spur gears.