Modeling and Prediction of Wear for Gears in Plastic Materials and Their Composites

Abstract

This work deals with the modeling and prediction of the wear of plastic gears and their composites. The literature shows that the worn shape of gear teeth for gears in plastic materials and their composites differs from that of their metal gear counterparts. This makes existing models of wear prediction in metallic gears unsuitable for gears made of plastic materials and their composites. Two models based on Archard's law, namely the adapted Flodin model and a new model with an exponential coefficient of wear, are developed in this study. Simulations on acetal gears were implemented using models developed with Matlab code and the numerical results obtained are presented and discussed. The results of the two wear models effectively give the worn shape of the profiles in accordance with t h a t o b t a i n e d b y t h e e x p e r i m e n t a l t e s t s o f D ü z c ü k o ğ l u [ 1 1 ]. The new wear model compared to the Flodin model presents a simplicity in determining its exponential wear coefficient λ. The exponential wear coefficient λ is more stable face the variations of the operating p a r a m e t e r s t h a n t h e w e a r c o e f f i c i e n t k o f t h e F l o d i n m o d e l. Using the results of experimental tests carried out on acetal gears by K. Mao [9], a validation method is proposed and shows a good agreement between the experimental results and those of our new model.