Journal of applied science in the thermodynamics and fluid mechanics

Vol. 4, No. 1/2010, ISSN 1802-9388

NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF THE OIL FLOW IN THE GAP BETWEEN

GEAR TOOTH
Stanislav JIROUŠ*, Karel FRAŇA**
*Technical University of Liberec, Department of Power Engineering Equipment
Studenstká 2, 46117, Liberec 1, Czech Republic
Phone: (+ 420)485353434, Fax: + 420485353644, E-mail: standa_j@seznam.cz
**Technical University of Liberec, Department of Power Engineering Equipment
Studenstká 2, 46117, Liberec 1, Czech Republic
Phone: + 420485353436, Fax: + 420485353644, E-mail: karel.frana@seznam.cz

The numerical simulation of the oil flow in the tooth wheel gap during a running of gearing is the key topic
of this article. The study is follow-up on previous research [1], [2], [3], where the phenomena of local
pressure extreme on the surface of the tooth wheels were studied in the tooth wheels gap depend on
running parameters. These general factors affect dramatically the occurrence of the local pressure extreme
on the tooth wheels. Earlier published articles have covered some simplification such as the dimension of
model, the way of moving tooth wheels.

Keywords: gear; tooth wheel; numerical simulation; multiphase flows; dynamic mesh; Fluent

1 INTRODUCTION
The research explains the damage of surface of gear tooth in local area at the time of transmiting rotational
motion.. These damages are caused in the relatively short time.
The main hypothesis is that the damage of the gear tooth is caused by adversely gradient pressure near the
surface of gear. . The destruction of surface is supposedly caused by, the oil flow with high velocity in the gap
between gear tooth. when local under-pressure come up on surface of tooth This adversely gradient
pressure can pull out small particles form the surface of the tooth. On the basis of this theory the pressure in
the oil film on the surface of gear is observed.
As mentioned above this study refers to the research with the intent to improve the motion of a gear,
because the definition of gear motion could significantly affect the processes in a gap between gear tooth
during running There is changing the profile of the curve of two gear tooth in dependence on time as well as
the space of gap. . The condition of oil flowing are different in every time-step.
For the research of phenomena in the oil film was used the commercial software Fluent such as in the
previous research. The parameters of numerical simulation were similar to be able compare the obtained
results. The concept of multiphase flow is based on the VOF – volume of fluid model. The functionality
of dynamic mesh was used to simulate generating of tooth wheels.

2 SOLVING
The study is focused on the effects in the gap between gear tooth and the main flow too, so the geometry
of gearing was simplify only for mentioned area . See the figure 1.

2.1. The geometry

The geometry of gearing was created from known profile of tooth. The simplify geometry were made in pre-
processor Gambit, only two tooth of both gearing were left. The mesh was created from the triangle elements
and usual boundary conditions were used.

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 Journal of applied science in the thermodynamics and fluid mechanics
Vol. 4, No. 1/2010, ISSN 1802-9388

Figure 1: The 3D dimension model of gearing. Figure 2: The simplify model

2.2 The goals and ways of results evaluation

In the previous studies [1], [2], [3] were discovered the local pressure maxima and minima. The occurrence
of these extreme values is the key for determination of a place with the most probably damage of the surface
of gearing. The frequency of pressure extremes allows us to quantify the segment of the geometry with the
high frequency of under-pressure.
The part of observed geometry is shown on the figure 2. This observed area is from the root diameter to the
tip diameter of gear tooth. This observed area obtained 213 point – nodes of mesh, for which the static
pressure was recorded during numerical simulation.
For the recording of the value of static pressure into file was used macro in software Fluent, which exported
the value of static pressure from observed area in every time-step to the file. By application of this macro we
obtained data from whole numerical simulation to analyse an occurrence of under-pressure on the surface
of gearing.

Figure 3: Observed area of the tooth wheel Figure 4: The picture of the real tooth wheel

2.3 Gear moving definition

It was made by UDF (user defined function) in software Fluent. This commercial code provides a lot of
predefined functions, which are implemented by C language. In our case was used the function called
define_cg_motion performing the move of the tooth wheel.
The user defined function udf_moving.c was created based of function define_cg_motion to define the
moving. The source code of this function is written in a C language as well as some auxiliary formulas were
programmed to determinate the angular velocity and components of the translation velocity. The udf_moving

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 Journal of applied science in the thermodynamics and fluid mechanics
Vol. 4, No. 1/2010, ISSN 1802-9388
function is adherent only to the moving gear.
The main concept is “freezing” one of the tooth wheels for realization of the moving. The active gear makes
the composite moving of rotation and translation. This moving is presented on the figure 6.

Figure 5: The schema of realization of the moving

The active tooth wheel rotates by angular velocity omegac with the axis of rotation in the point O1 , the radius
is size of aw. The formula of the angular velocity is following:
2 ⋅n1⋅z 1
c = , .(1)
60⋅ z 1 z 2 
where
n1 – nominal angular velocity of tooth wheel – gear 1, z1 – the number of tooth of gear – 1,
n2 – nominal angular velocity of tooth wheel – gear 2, z2 – the number of tooth of gear – 2.
The moving of tooth wheel is composited from two rotations moving. At the first the active tooth wheel is
moving on the circle k with angular velocity omegac , the centre of the circle is in the point O1 . Secondly the
active tooth wheel rotates around an axis in the point O2 with the angular velocity omega2. The angular
velocity omega2 is the nominal angular velocity of gearing.

Figure 6: The time dependabled position of moving

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 Journal of applied science in the thermodynamics and fluid mechanics
Vol. 4, No. 1/2010, ISSN 1802-9388
2.4. The basic parameters of numerical simulation
Because of the dynamic mesh it was necessary to use special solution with relatively small time step due to
high angular velocity. The volume of fluid model – VOF was used for multiphase system of oil and air. The
boundary condition was 1mm high layer of oil on the active tooth wheel at the start of simulation.

3 RESULTS
For the result interpretation was made a method which qualifies the data from numerical simulation. The data
– static pressure were tested on the local maxima and minima on the observed area. For dealing with the
theory of damaged surface of a gear was the occurrence of under-pressure the most important factor of the
analysis.

3.1. The occurrence of static pressure, under-pressure

The observed area was split to five segments for better determination of the origin of local maxima of under-
pressure. Interval of under-pressure was established and divided to ten intervals.
Table 1: Distribution of static under-pressure by segment of geometry
under-pressure [MPa]
0,1 - 0,2 - 0,3 - 0,4 - 0,5 - 0,6 - 0,7 - 0,8 - 0,9 -
PID 0 - 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1,0
1 400467 782 1 2303 173 1 0 1 0 1 4
2 43 1096 29298 870 1 1 208 57 13 0 11 7 2
3 403738 35800 1064 1 1690 135 58 9 3 0 0
4 4 1822 1 41597 12726 1995 175 47 0 0 0 0
5 5 13233 48696 14611 23 19 162 54 0 0 0 0

In the table 1 there is the pressure between 0-0.4 [MPa] appears with high frequency in every segment of
observed geometry. The frequency of under-pressure is very similar in every segment of this interval value of
relatively small under-pressure. The high value of under-pressure was noted only in the first and second of
observed areas.

Figure 7: The damage of the tooth wheel

On the Figure 8, the average pressure distribution over a surface is demonstrated. In practice, the average
pressure means that the local pressure from all points are summarized and divided by the total number of
time steps. This pseudo value of pressure denotes the average strain during a one revolution of tooth wheel.

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Vol. 4, No. 1/2010, ISSN 1802-9388

Figure 8 : the value of average pressure count from all time-steps of simulation

3.2. The visualization of the flow

Thanks to the numerical simulation it is possible to study whole computed domain and their variables, which
will not be possible in this case. The distribution of oil demonstrates the lubrication of the gear tooth and
shows the flow of oil in the gap between gear tooth.

Figure 9: Sequence of motion tooth wheel – volume of oil

The oil was forced upward in the first phase of moving of gearing from the tooth wheel gap. This effect is
forced by the simplification of the model to 2D case, because the air flow through of tooth wheel gap and
force upward the oil.

Figure 10: Volume fraction of oil and vectors of velocity

The volume fraction of oil together with vectors of velocity in the first phase of moving shows, that the oil is
forced upward from the gap between gear tooth.

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 Journal of applied science in the thermodynamics and fluid mechanics
Vol. 4, No. 1/2010, ISSN 1802-9388

Figure 11: Velocity field with the vectors of velocity

The figure 11 shows the velocity field in the last phase of moving of gearing. The vectors of velocity denote
the swirl in the tooth wheel gap caused by under-pressure due to increasing space of gap.

4 CONCLUSION
The new method was created for the moving of the gear tooth and the numerical simulation was realized to
verify this method. The new way of moving of gearing is very similar to the real moving. This part of research
was focused on the occurrence of local pressure minima on the surface of the gear tooth as well as in the
previous study. The analysis of under-pressure identified the same place of damage as well as on the real
gearing, figure 7. The next research of the damage of surface of the tooth wheel is running on the 3D
geometry and it will be compared with the present results.

REFERENCES
[1] JIROUŠ, S.: Numerical simulation of the flow of oil in the wheel gap. The work of
the Master of Degree, Liberec, Technical University of Liberec, 2008
[2] JIROUŠ, S. – FRAŇA, K.: Simulation of the oil flow in the tooth wheel gap. In POWER SYSTÉM
ENGINEERING, THERMODYNAMICS & FLUID FLOW 2009, Plzeň, Česká republika,
ISBN 978-80-7043-804-9
[3] JIROUŠ, S. – FRAŇA, K.: Numerical simulation of the oil flow in the tooth wheel gap In.: Journal of
Applied Science in the Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, Liberec, Česká republika, 2008,
ISSN 1803-0203.
[4] FERZINGER, J., H., PETRIC, M.: Computational Methods for Fluid Dynamics.
2nd edition. Springer, Verlag, 1999
[5] BRENNEN, CH., E.: Fundamentals of Multiphase Flow. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2005
[6] WILCOX, D., C.: Basic Fluid Mechanics. DCW Industries, 2003
[7] Fluent 6.3 Documentation
[8] Gambit 6.3 Documentation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was financially supported by the student research grant SGS 2823 at TU Liberec by Ministry of
Education of the Czech Republic.