Numerical Simulation and Experimental Investigation on Tribological Properties of Gear Alloy Surface Biomimetic Texture

Abstract

A biomimetic microtexture was constructed on the surface of gear alloys, and the stress distribution and oil film pressure of the textured tooth surface were evaluated by numerical simulation. The tribological test of the textured gear alloy was carried out using a "reciprocating ball-on-flat" tribotester, and the friction mechanism was analyzed. The influence of microtexture on the tribological properties of gear alloys was analyzed by cross-checking between the simulation and experiment. The simulation results show that all three biomimetic textures can change the stress contact state of the tooth surface. The oil film pressure of the textured tooth surface is higher than that of the untextured tooth surface. The experimental results show that the textured alloy has excellent tribological properties. Among these, the crescent texture has the best comprehensive performance, and the friction coefficient and wear rate can be reduced by more than 30% and 95%, which is the result of the dynamic pressure effect of the texture and debris storage. In the analysis of wear marks and debris, it is found that the small size of debris wrapped by thick carbon material is helpful to improve the tribological properties of gear alloy. Large-size debris is the main cause of plowing and wear.

Keywords:

• Bionic textured gear alloy
• numerical simulation
• tribology performance
• lubricating oil film

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant no. 51575289, and by the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation under grant no. ZR2021ME063.