Investigation on coupling effects between surface wear and dynamics in a spur gear system

A dynamic wear prediction methodology is proposed to investigate the coupling effects between surface wear and dynamics of spur gear systems. The overall computational scheme combines a quasi-static wear model and a translational-rotational-coupled nonlinear dynamic model. The worn surfaces are represented by modulated mesh excitations and introduced into the dynamic model to investigate the effects of surface wear on system׳s dynamic characteristics. The dynamic gear mesh forces are converted into an equivalent load by using the Miner rule to reveal the effects of dynamics on wear behaviors. A spur gear transmission is taken as an example system to demonstrate the interactions between surface wear and dynamic behaviors. The simulations indicate that surface wear and gear dynamics are highly interacted. [Display omitted] •A dynamic wear prediction methodology for a spur gear system is proposed.•The proposed methodology can improve the wear prediction accuracy.•Quantitive relationship between surface wear and dynamics are revealed.