A life-cycle dynamic wear degradation model of planetary gear systems

Abstract

An accurate prediction model for surface wear in planetary gear systems is essential to decipher wear fault mechanisms and facilitate model-driven failure prognosis. A high-fidelity dynamic wear model relies on the appropriate characterization and updating strategy of the tooth macro-geometry, contact parameters and dynamic load. A geometrically adaptive-loaded tooth contact analysis (GA-LTCA) method is proposed to “bridge” wear morphology and dynamic behaviours. The finite element method and run-to-failure test are adopted to verify the GA-LTCA method and wear prediction model, respectively. Based on the proposed wear model, the life-cycle wear characteristics and the updating strategy of wear geometry are investigated. Owing to the consideration of the micro-cycle of the contact stress and geometrical updating, the predicted wear profile exhibits a desirable agreement with experimental results. The tooth profile deviation vector should be updated more frequently than the finite element model of worn gears. Only the finite element grid of the sun-planet gear pair should be updated because the wear of the sun-planet is much more serious than that of the ring-planet. Numerical results indicate the potential of the proposed high-fidelity model for digital twin-based wear prediction and life cycle failure prognosis.