Effect of Interference Fit on Fretting Wear of Gear Shaft Shoulder

Abstract

Based on the phenomenon of serious fretting wear of gear shaft shoulder in the process of rotating, the finite element software ABAQUS was used to build the finite element model of the bearing and gear shaft assembly. The interference between the gear shaft and the bearing was considered and the fretting damage at the gear shaft shoulder was analyzed based on the simulation results. The effects of interference on fretting wear of gear shaft shoulder were studied combining with Archard’s wear law. By analyzing the effects of the different interferences on the stresses and displacement amplitudes of gear shaft shoulder, the conclusion can be obtained: the stresses between the bearing inner ring and the shaft shoulder increase with the increase of the interference, on the contrary, the displacement amplitudes between gear shaft shoulder and bearing decrease with the increase of the interference. Therefore, the appropriate interference fitted connections not only guarantee that there is no slip at the mating surfaces, no plastic deformation and failure in the mating parts, but also enable the gear shaft to have the sufficient contact pressure to transmit the effective torque. The finite element method provides an effective approach to analyze the fretting wear of gear shaft shoulder. The fretting wear of gear shaft shoulder can be effectively mitigated if the value of interference is set appropriately.