Interactions between nonlinear spur gear dynamics and surface wear

In this study, two different dynamic models, a finite elements-based deformable-body model and a simplified discrete model, and a surface wear model are combined to study the interaction between gear surface wear and gear dynamic response. The proposed dynamic gear wear model includes the influence of worn surface profiles on dynamic tooth forces and transmission error as well as the influence of dynamic tooth forces on wear profiles. This paper first introduces the nonlinear dynamic models that include gear backlash and time-varying gear mesh stiffness, and a wear model separately. It presents a comparison to experiments for validation of the dynamic models. The dynamic models are combined with the wear model to study the interaction of surface wear and dynamic behavior in both linear and nonlinear response regimes. At the end, several sets of simulation results are used to demonstrate the two-way relationship between nonlinear gear dynamics and surface wear.