Non-uniform wear evolution of gear tooth surface under complicated excitations in a locomotive

Gear surface wear will inevitably occur under the complicated excitations in a locomotive. The continuous accumulated wear would induce the deterioration of the meshing state of the gear pair and it affects the stability of operation and shorten the service life of components. Therefore, it is the premise of fault maintenance to accurately grasp the evolution law of wear and its effect on the components’ vibrations. However, there is little work on the wear calculation of the gear pain in a locomotive considering the complicated excitations. To fill this gap, a locomotive-track spatially coupled dynamics model with the discrete gear model is employed in this paper, which combines with the typical Archard’s wear calculation equation. The calculation method of load distribution of discrete tooth slices under misalignment is proposed. The time-varying mesh stiffness, track irregularity, and time-varying wear coefficient are comprehensively taken into account. In addition, the developed wear depth, deemed as a kind of profile error, is taken into account in the dynamic transmission error (DTE). The results indicate that the accumulated wear depth of the driving gear is more severe than that of the driven gear. There is an apparent difference in wear distribution for different discrete slices along the tooth width under misalignment. In addition, the developed cumulative wear depth could exert a vital influence on the dynamic performance of components in the vehicle system. This study can provide a theoretical guideline for service life prediction and structural design.