Effect of tooth profile modification on lubrication performance of spur gear pairs

Tooth profile modification is a familiar method to improve load capacity and avoid tooth failures, however, the lubrication performance of a meshing gear pair surfaces would be affected due to the change of gear micro-geometry. Firstly, a simplified model for a meshing gear pair is established. Tooth load, rolling velocity and contact geometry vary as the gear teeth come into action. Later, a transient elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model of an engaged spur gear pair is developed. Film thickness and pressure could be obtained by utilizing multigrid method. Then, influence of tooth profile modification (TPM) on the lubrication performance are investigated based on the proposed EHL model. At last, the lubrication performance under different operating conditions are studied.