Investigation into the meshing friction heat generation and transient thermal characteristics of spiral bevel gears

Friction loss and scuffing failure are two primary research subjects in improving the performance of spiral bevel gears. Aimed at improving the thermal characteristics with machine-setting parameter adjustment, a coupled thermo-elastic 3D finite element model has been developed to analyse the frictional heat generation and transient thermal behaviour of spiral bevel gears. The heat fluxes due to friction effects are applied to the gear tooth to investigate thermal characteristics and prediction of transient temperature fields. The resulting thermal characteristics agree with earlier work, thus verifying the model and numerical approach. This study permits an in-depth understanding of the temperature fields, together with the frictional heat generation process. Furthermore, by investigating the transient thermal behaviour among different pinion machine-setting parameters, the tilted and extended tooth contact pattern achieved by adjusting the machine-setting parameters can result in an optimal tooth contact pattern that produces a uniform temperature field of much lower value, thereby achieving higher efficiency of transmission along with stronger anti-scuffing performance.