Gear Lubrication and Cooling Experiment and Analysis

A gear tooth temperature analysis was performed using a finite element method combined with a calculated heat input, a calculated oil jet impingement depth, and estimated heat transfer coefficients for the different parts of the gear tooth that are oil cooled and air cooled. Experimental measurements of gear tooth average surface temperature and gear tooth instantaneous surface temperature were made with a fast response, infrared, radiometric microscope. Increasing oil pressure has a significant effect on both average surface temperature and peak surface temperature at loads above 1895 N/cm(1083 lb/in) and speeds of 10,000 and 7500 rpm. Both increasing speed (from 5000 to 10,000 rpm) at constant speed cause a significant rise in the average surface temperature and in the instantaneous peak surface temperatures on the gear teeth. The oil jet pressure required to provide the best cooling for gears is the pressure required to obtain full gear tooth impingement. Calculated results for gear tooth temperatures were close to experimental results for various oil jet impingement depths for identical operating conditions.