Experimental research of wear-fatigue interaction of gears

Abstract

Gear failures are commonly caused by wear and fatigue and past research on gear failures has primarily focused on individual failures. A gear testing machine was developed to explore the mechanism of gear wear-fatigue interaction, and four sets of wear-fatigue interaction tests were performed by changing the operating conditions of the gear drive by regulating the quantity of lubricant in the test gearbox. The K-S test method was used to investigate the gear life distribution under wear-fatigue interaction. The frequency domain properties of the wear-fatigue interaction were compiled and analyzed using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis. A coordinate measuring machine was implemented to obtain the exact amount of wear at each stage of the gear test. The mechanism of gear wear-fatigue interaction was analyzed by scanning electron microscope observation of tooth surfaces. The results are as follows. The life distribution under wear-fatigue interaction obeys a log-normal distribution. With the increase of the lubrication the pitting fault occurs, the fault gear rotation frequency and its harmonic frequency appear in the low frequency region, and its amplitude increases with the increase of the pitting fault. In the high-frequency region, a sideband with the faulty gear rotation frequency as the interval appears around the meshing frequency and its two times frequency, and its amplitude increases with the increase of the pitting fault. With the decrease of lubrication, the gear wear failure increases, the amplitude of the meshing frequency and its two times frequency increases in the high frequency region. In the gear transmission process, wear and fatigue exist in a competitive relationship of mutual constraints.