Numerical prediction of vibration-induced cavitation erosion in high-speed gears using erosion risk indicators

Cavitation erosion in gear transmissions is lack of study at present, but closely correlating to the damage on tooth surface due to the high impact pressure generated by collapsing bubbles. In this study, combined the gear dynamics and two-phase flow simulations, the cavitation erosion risk indicators (CERI) are used for predicting the tooth erosion. In the proposed computational fluid dynamics model considering vibration and cavitation, the gear displacement from finite element model is employed as boundary condition, and the moving mesh technology is used to adapt deformed fluid domain. Subsequently, this method is validated by the available experiments. The erosion on meshing surface is estimated by twelve different CERIs, and the three most reasonable indicators are remained.

Automated summary

Cavitation erosion in gear transmissions, closely related to the damage on tooth surface, is currently under-studied. A computational fluid dynamics model is proposed in this study to predict tooth erosion by combining gear dynamics and two-phase flow simulations. The model considers vibration and cavitation, with gear displacement from a finite element model used as a boundary condition and moving mesh technology adapting the deformed fluid domain. The method is validated by experiments, and twelve different CERIs are used to estimate erosion on meshing surface, with the three most reasonable indicators identified.