Non-stationary elastohydrodynamic lubrication analysis of an involute spur gear

Non-stationary elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) of an involute spur gear is a very complex problem. A full transient EHL solution of an involute spur gear is obtained by utilizing the multigrid method, which takes the variation of equivalent curvature, entrainment velocity and load on time along the line of action into consideration. The lubricant thermal and rheological effects are ignored and the gear teeth are assumed to be rigid in the model. The influences of load spectrum and impact on the EHL are analyzed in the paper. The load is carried by one pair of teeth and two pairs repeatedly and the impact when the teeth come into action is taken into consideration. The results show that the transient effect have strongly influence on the maximum pressure and minimum film thickness. The load spectrum plays an important role in the EHL of gear.