Power Losses of Spiral Bevel Gears: An Analysis Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

Energy efficiency is among the predominant aspects in mechanical design. Geared transmissions are widespread in several industrial applications and efficiency's improvements translate into various benefits, e.g., reduction of pollutants' emissions, better system's reliability due to lower operating temperatures, and higher power density. The possibility to compare different solutions in the preliminary stages of the design phase plays a determinant role to the achievements of these targets. In particular, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be adopted to analyze the problem of interest overcoming the limitations of the analytical equations. On the other side, the application of numerical models to gears, in which the topology of the domain changes during operation, represents a challenging task and tailored mesh handling algorithms must be implemented. In the current paper, the power losses of a spiral bevel gear were examined numerically with an opensource tool. The predictions of the numerical models were compared with experimental data. The approach adopted shows a good computational effort making it useful for parametrical studies and, therefore, suggests being an effective tool for the analysis of the gearboxes' efficiency and lubrication.

A Multi Domain Modeling Approach for the CFD Simulation of Multi-Stage Gearboxes

“…Oil jet lubrication was studied by [33,34] in order to find the position of the nozzle that guarantees the optimal lubrication of the teeth. A numerical model for the prediction of churning and windage power losses of a single spiral bevel gear was presented by the authors [35]. The simulations could predict the trend of the losses justifying from ta numerical point of view the experimental observations.…”

Implementation of a Numerical Model for the Prediction of Aeration in Mechanical Systems

“…In particular, aeration has still not been considered in the numerical analysis of mechanical systems as geared transmissions. On the other hand, several works dealing with multiphase solvers, both mesh-based [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and mesh-less [19][20][21][22][23][24], and cavitation simulations [25][26][27][28][29][30] can be found in literature. Pioneering studies on aeration in mechanical components can be found in the study [31], where the authors analysed the aeration in tapered roller bearings with experimental and numerical investigations.…”

Application of the GRAMC mesh-handling strategy for the simulation of dip and injection lubrication in gearboxes

“…Tetrahedral meshes are characterized by higher generation times with respect to prismatic or hexahedral elements. Single rotating helical gears [11] and spiral bevel gears [12] have been already simulated by the authors, while the virtual modelling of mating gears has been approached with mesh [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] and meshless methods [21][22][23][24][25][26] in commercial software. Works based on a general procedure in open-source software are still lacking in the literature.…”