ASM Handbook, Volume 18, Friction, Lubrication, and Wear Technology
George E. Totten, editor
Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears
and Wind-Turbine Components
Revised by Robert Errichello, Geartech
BECAUSE GEARS are common machine
components, they can be taken for granted. It
is not generally appreciated that they are com-
plex systems, and successful design requires
knowledge from all engineering disciplines.
Gear design is a process of synthesis in which
gear geometry, material, heat treatment,
manufacturing methods, and lubrication are
selected to meet the requirements of a given
application. A gearset must be designed with
adequate strength, wear resistance, and scuffing
resistance. Lubricant choice and its application
method are also important, as lubrication is
used to reduce friction, dissipate heat, and min-
imize wear. The choice of lubricant and its
application are complex due to the interrela-
tionship of the following factors:

Gear tooth geometry

Gear tooth motion (kinematics)

Gear tooth forces (static and dynamic)

Gear tooth material and surface characteris-
tics (physical and chemical)

Lubricant characteristics (physical and
chemical)

Environmental characteristics (physical and
chemical)
Gear Tooth Lubrication-Related
Failure Modes
The gear designer must be aware of the
intricate details of many competing failure
modes to obtain optimum minimum-weight
gearsets. American Gear Manufacturers Associ-
ation (AGMA) classified over 40 modes of
gear failure under broad categories of wear,
scuffing, plastic deformation, Hertzian fatigue,
cracking, fracture, and bending fatigue in its
nomenclature publication ANSI/AGMA 1010-
F14 (Ref 1). Categories discussed here are wear,
scuffing, and Hertzian fatigue (Table 1).
This article is concerned with gear tooth fail-
ures influenced by friction, lubrication, and wear,
and especially those failure modes that occur in
wind-turbine components. Macropitting and
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
Copyright # 2017 ASM InternationalW
All rights reserved
www.asminternational.org
scuffing could cause gear teeth to deteriorate
Scuffing
and generate dynamic forces, which, in turn,
Hertzian fatigue (including macropitting and
could cause the teeth to fail by bending fatigue. micropitting)
In these cases, the bending failure is secondary
and not directly related to lubrication, whereas
macropitting and scuffing are the primary failure Wear
mode, both of which are influenced by lubrica-
tion. It is necessary to discern the difference Gearsets are susceptible to wear caused by
between primary and secondary failure modes adhesion, abrasion, polishing, fretting, and elec-
so the right corrective action is recommended. tric discharge. AGMA 925-A03 (Ref 2) gives
For example, increasing the size of gear teeth to methods for calculating the probability of wear
prevent reoccurrence of bending failure would and scuffing.
make the situation worse by reducing macropit- Adhesion. Adhesive wear is classified as mild
ting and scuffing resistance. Cracking, fracture, if it is confined to oxide layers on gear tooth sur-
bending fatigue, and subcase Hertzian fatigue faces. However, if oxide layers are disrupted
are unrelated to lubrication and are not discussed exposing bare metal, a transition from mild wear
further. Although corrosion, cavitation, and ero- to severe adhesive wear usually occurs. Severe
sion are influenced by lubrication, they are not adhesive wear is termed scuffing, and is discussed
in the section “Scuffing” in this article. In this sec-
discussed in this article, because they rarely occur
tion, we assume that scuffing has been avoided
in gear teeth and wind-turbine components.
through proper gear design, lubricant selection,
Therefore, the discussion is limited to:
and control of the running-in process.

Wear (including adhesion, abrasion, polish- When new gear units are first put into opera-
ing, fretting, and electrical discharge) tion, contact between gear teeth is not optimal
because of unavoidable manufacturing inac-
curacies. If tribological conditions are favorable,
mild adhesive wear occurs during running-in
Table 1 Basic failure modes of gear teeth and usually subsides with time, resulting in satis-
Lubrication-related failures factory gear life. Wear that occurs during run-
ning-in is beneficial if it smoothes tooth surfaces
Wear Adhesion Mild
(which increases the specific film thickness) and
Moderate
Severe (see scuffing) increases the contact area by removing minor
Abrasion Mild imperfections through local wear. To ensure that
Moderate the wear rate remains under control, new gearsets
Severe
Polishing Mild should be run-in by operating under a controlled
Moderate load spectrum, or for at least the first ten hours
Severe at one-half load.
Fretting True brinelling The amount of wear considered tolerable
False brinelling
Fretting corrosion depends on expected gear life and requirements
Electrical for control of noise and vibration. Wear is con-
discharge sidered excessive when tooth profiles wear to
Scuffing Mild the extent that high dynamic loads occur, or
Moderate
Severe tooth thickness is reduced to the extent that
Hertzian Macropitting Nonprogressive bending fatigue becomes possible.
fatigue Progressive Many gears must operate under boundary-
Point-surface-origin lubrication conditions where some wear is inev-
Spall
Micropitting itable due to practical limits of lubricant viscos-
ity, speed, and temperature. Highly loaded,

slow-speed (<0.5 m/s, or 1.5 ft/s), boundary-
lubricated gears are especially prone to exces-
sive wear. Test results with slow-speed gears
(Ref 3) show that nitrided gears have good wear
resistance, whereas carburized and through-
hardened gears have similar, but lower wear
resistance. Winter and Weiss (Ref 3) found that
lubricant viscosity has the greatest effect on
slow-speed adhesive wear, that high-viscosity
lubricants reduce the wear rate significantly,
and that sulfur-phosphorus antiscuff additives
are detrimental with very slow-speed (<0.05
m/s, or 2 in./s) gears, resulting in very high
wear rates.
Some gear units operate under ideal condi-
tions with smooth tooth surfaces, high pitch line
speed, and thick lubricant films. For example,
steam-turbine gears operating almost continu-
ously at 150 m/s (492 ft/s) pitch-line speed still
had original machining marks on their teeth
after operating for 20 years. However, most
gears operate between boundary and full-film
lubrication regimes, under elastohydrodynamic
(EHL) conditions. In the EHL regime, with
the proper lubricant type and viscosity, the wear
rate usually decreases during running-in, and
adhesive wear virtually ceases after running-in
is completed. The gearset should not suffer an
adhesive wear failure with properly maintained
(cool, clean, and dry) lubricant.
Methods to Prevent Adhesive Wear. Guide-
lines to mitigate and prevent adhesive wear
include:

Use smooth tooth surfaces

Run-in new gearsets by operating under a
controlled load spectrum, or for at least the
first ten hours at one-half load

Drain and flush the lubricant after the first
50 h of operation to remove wear debris
from running-in, refill with filtered service
lubricant, and install a new filter element

Use high speeds, otherwise, recognize that
highly loaded, slow-speed gears are bound-
ary lubricated and are especially prone to
excessive wear; specify nitrided gears and
the highest permissible lubricant viscosity
for these conditions

Avoid using lubricants with sulfur-phospho-
rus antiscuff additives for very slow-speed
gears (<0.05 m/s)

Use an adequate amount of cool, clean, and
dry lubricant of the highest viscosity
permissible

Improve cooling to lower gear mesh
temperature
Abrasion. Abrasive wear on gear teeth is
usually caused by contamination of the lubri-
cant by hard, sharp-edged particles. Contamina-
tion in gearboxes are built-in, internally
generated, ingested through breathers and seals,
and inadvertently added during maintenance.
Many gear manufacturers do not fully appre-
ciate the significance of clean assembly; it is
not uncommon to find sand, machining chips,
grinding dust, weld splatter, and other debris
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears and Wind-Turbine Components / 883
in new gearboxes. To remove built-in contami-
nation, the gearbox lubricant should be drained
and flushed before start-up and again after the
first 50 h of operation, refilled with the recom-
mended lubricant, and a new oil-filter element
installed.
Internally generated particles are usually
wear debris from gears and bearings due to
Hertzian fatigue pitting, adhesive wear, and
abrasive wear. Wear particles are especially
abrasive because they become work-hardened
when trapped between gear teeth. Internally
generated wear debris can be minimized by
using precise surface-hardened gear teeth (with
high pitting resistance), smooth surfaces, and
high-viscosity lubricants.
Breather vents are used on gearboxes to vent
internal pressure, which can occur when air
enters through seals and when air within the
gearbox expands (or contracts) during the nor-
mal heating and cooling of the gear unit. The
breather vent should be located in a clean, non-
pressurized area, and should have a filter to pre-
vent ingress of airborne contaminants. In
especially harsh environments, the gearbox
can be completely sealed, and the pressure var-
iation can be accommodated by an expansion
chamber with a flexible diaphragm.
All maintenance procedures that involve
opening any part of the gearbox or lubrication
system must be carefully performed to prevent
contamination of the gearbox system.
Abrasive wear due to foreign contaminants,
such as sand or internally generated wear
debris, is called three-body abrasion, and is a
common occurrence. Two-body abrasion
occurs when embedded particles and asperities
on one gear tooth abrade the opposing tooth
surface. Generally, two-body abrasion is much
more damaging than three-body abrasion,
because the abrasive is fixed in one body and
abrades directly on the other body. Three-body
abrasion is generally much less severe because
the abrasive can roll, slide, and vary its
approach angle. Unless tooth surfaces of a sur-
face-hardened gear are smoothly finished, they
function like files if the mating gear is apprecia-
bly softer. This is why a worm pinion is
polished after grinding before it is run with a
bronze worm wheel. Manufacturers of com-
puter disk drives found that stainless-steel
pinions mated with anodized-aluminum racks
have excessively high wear rates. The anodized
layer is extremely thin and brittle, and breaks
up and impregnates the relatively soft stain-
less-steel pinion. The aluminum oxide particles
then function like emery paper, and wear the
teeth of the rack very quickly.
The lubrication system should be carefully
maintained and monitored to ensure that the
gears receive an adequate amount of cool,
clean, and dry lubricant. For circulating-oil sys-
tems, fine filtration removes contamination. Fil-
ters as fine as 3 mm significantly increase gear
life. A 10-mm online filter and a 3-mm off-line
filter are standard equipment for wind-turbine
gearboxes (Ref 4). For oil-bath gearboxes, the
lubricant should be changed frequently to
remove contamination. Under normal operating
conditions, the lubricant should be changed at
least every 2500 h of operation, or every six
months, whichever occurs first. Alternatively,
an off-line filter can be used to filter the oil
bath. For critical gearboxes, a regular program
of lubricant monitoring can help prevent gear
failures by indicating when maintenance is
required. Lubricant monitoring should include
spectrographic and ferrographic analysis of
contamination, along with analysis of acid
number, viscosity, and water content.
Methods to Prevent Abrasive Wear. Guide-
lines to mitigate and prevent abrasive wear
include:

Remove built-in contamination from new
gearboxes by draining and flushing the lubri-
cant before start-up and again after the first
50 h of operation, refill with filtered service
lubricant, and install a new filter element

Minimize internally generated wear debris
by using surface-hardened gear teeth,
smooth tooth surfaces, and high-viscosity
lubricants

Minimize ingested contamination by main-
taining oil-tight seals and using filtered
breather vents located in clean, nonpressur-
ized areas

Perform all maintenance that involves open-
ing the gearbox or lubrication system in a
clean environment (if possible) and use good
housekeeping procedures to avoid contami-
nating the gearbox

Use fine filtration for circulating-oil systems,
change or process lubricant to remove water,
and include an off-line filter to remove small
particles

Change the lubricant at least every 2500 h or
every six months, whichever occurs first, for
oil-bath systems, or use an off-line filter to
filter the oil bath

Monitor the lubricant with spectrographic
and ferrographic analysis together with anal-
ysis of acid number, viscosity, and water
content
Polishing. Chemically reactive antiscuff
additives in the lubricant can cause polishing
of gear tooth surfaces until they attain a bright
mirror finish. Although polished gear teeth
may look good, polishing wear is undesirable
because it generally reduces gear accuracy by
wearing tooth profiles away from their ideal
form. Antiscuff additives, such as sulfur and
phosphorus, are used in lubricants to prevent
scuffing. They function by forming iron-sulfide
and iron-phosphate films on areas of the gear
teeth where high temperatures occur. Ideally,
the additives should react only at temperatures
where there is a danger of welding. If the rate
of reaction is too high, and there is a continuous
removal of the surface films caused by a very
fine abrasives in the lubricant, polishing wear
can be excessive (Ref 5).
884 / Friction and Wear of Machine Components
Polishing wear can be prevented by using
less chemically active additives. As an alterna-
tive to sulfur-phosphorus additives, antiscuff
lubricants are available with dispersions of
potassium borate (Ref 6), which deposit anti-
scuff films without chemically reacting with
the metal. Furthermore, removing the abrasives
in the lubricant by using fine filtration and fre-
quent oil changes is helpful.
Methods to Prevent Polishing Wear. Guidelines
to mitigate and prevent polishing wear include:

Use less chemically active antiscuff addi-
tives (e.g. borate)

Remove abrasives from the lubricant by
using fine filtration and frequent oil changes
Fretting is localized wear of contacting gear,
spline, and bearing surfaces caused by minute
vibratory motion. It occurs between contacting
surfaces that are pressed together and subjected
to cyclic, relative motion of extremely small
amplitude. Under these conditions, lubricant
squeezes from between the surfaces, and
motion of the surfaces is too small to replenish
the lubricant. Natural oxide films that typically
protect surfaces are disrupted, permitting
metal-to-metal contact and causing adhesion
of surface asperities. Fretting commonly occurs
in joints that are bolted, keyed, and press-fitted,
and in splines and couplings. It could occur on
gear teeth and bearing raceways and rollers
under specific conditions where the gears and
bearings are not rotating and subjected to struc-
ture-borne vibrations such as those encountered
during transport and in parked wind turbines.
Two mechanisms of fretting are false brinelling
and fretting corrosion. For lubricated contacts
under fretting conditions, false brinelling starts
an incubation period of mild adhesive wear
under boundary lubrication. If the contact
becomes starved for lubrication, it can be sub-
jected to severe adhesive wear known as fret-
ting corrosion.
True brinelling is a separate failure mode
unrelated to false brinelling, but is discussed
here to contrast it with false brinelling. True
brinelling occurs in contacts subjected to Hert-
zian stress high enough to cause permanent
plastic deformation of the contacting surfaces.
It is characterized by permanent deformation
(without loss of material or change of surface
texture), which can occur during a single load
event. For example, true brinelling of a rolling
element bearing frequently occurs when the
bearing is not rotating and subjected to an
impact load great enough to plastically deform
the raceway. Dents in the raceway occur at
roller spacing, have raised shoulders, and the
original grinding marks are visible microscopi-
cally in the bottoms of the dents.
False Brinelling. Fretting begins with an
incubation period during which the wear mech-
anism is mild adhesion confined to the natural
oxide layer that covers steel. Wear debris is
iron oxide magnetite (Fe3O4), a highly mag-
netic black powder. Magnetite discolors the
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
lubricant surrounding the contact and forms a
black, greasy film. Damage during the incuba-
tion period is false brinelling, and it has distinctly
different morphology than true brinelling. False
brinelling is characterized by dents that do not
have raised shoulders. Furthermore, original
machining marks within the dents are worn away
by mild adhesive wear. Dents are created by the
wearing off of pre-existing and continually
reforming oxide films. Generally, the wear rate
is low, and the damage caused by false brinelling
is negligible. False brinelling occurs on gear teeth
and bearing components when they are not rotat-
ing but oscillating through extremely small
angles.
Fretting Corrosion. Wear debris from false
brinelling accumulates in the oil meniscus sur-
rounding the contact. If the amount is sufficient
to dam lubricant and prevent it from reaching
the contact, the lubricating regime changes
from boundary lubrication to unlubricated.
When the lubricant within the contact is
depleted by oxidation, the wear rate increases
dramatically until breaking through the natural
oxide layer, at which time strong welds form
between the asperities of the parent iron com-
ponents, and damage escalates to fretting corro-
sion. Relative motion breaks strongly welded
asperities and generates extremely small wear
particles, which oxidize to form iron-oxide
hematite (a-Fe2O3), a fine nonmagnetic powder
with a reddish-brown color of cocoa. The wear
debris is hard and abrasive with the same com-
position as jeweler’s rouge, and polishing wear
(fine scale abrasion) (Ref 5) is frequently found
around the periphery of a fretting corrosion
scar. Hematite discolors the lubricant surround-
ing the contact and forms rouge-colored paste.
Usually, the wear scar is discolored with black
or reddish films. Fretting corrosion damages
gear and bearing surfaces by forming ruts along
lines of contact. During operation, damaged
gears and bearings could generate a sharp, ham-
mering noise as the wear scars pass through the
Hertzian contacts. Pits from fretting corrosion
create local stress concentrations, leading to
macropitting and fatigue crack initiation, which,
if in high tensile stress areas, could propagate to
failure. Generally, fretting corrosion significantly
reduces fatigue strength. If bearing fits are inade-
quate to stop relative motion between the inner
ring and shaft, and between the outer ring and
housing, fretting corrosion could develop at these
interfaces. The best way to avoid false brinelling
and fretting corrosion is to stop the vibration, or
rotate the components to entrain fresh oil, or both.
Each time components entrain fresh oil, the incu-
bation period restarts, and the wear regime shifts
to mild adhesive wear. The length of the incuba-
tion period depends on lubricant type and how
easily lubricant reaches the contact. For unlubri-
cated contacts, there is no incubation period,
and fretting corrosion can start immediately with
a high wear rate from the beginning.
The planetary stage of a wind turbine gear-
box has a sun pinion, which is free to float on
its mating planet gears to equalize the power
shared between multiple planet gears. The sun
pinion transmits its torque through a spline with
external teeth that engage a spline with internal
teeth in the hollow LS shaft. Typically, sun
spline teeth are carburized and ground with a
lengthwise crown to allow the sun to pivot
about the spline as it moves radially to share
load with each planet gear. The LS shaft spline
has shaper-cut straight teeth, which are either
through hardened or nitrided. Generally, the
best wear resistance is achieved with a carbur-
ized-nitrided combination. Unlike gear teeth
with entraining velocity that builds relatively
high EHL film thickness, splines have zero
entraining velocity, which makes splines diffi-
cult to lubricate. Therefore, it is best to provide
pressurized oil jets to direct oil into the sun
spline, and rely on the slewing action of the
sun-spline teeth to bring oil into the contact
between the sun-LS shaft spline connection.
Spline teeth are susceptible to fretting corrosion
(the principal failure mode for splines) and
scuffing.
Methods to Prevent Fretting. Guidelines to
mitigate and prevent fretting include:

Stop the vibration, rotate the components to
entrain fresh oil, or both

Ensure angular motion for reciprocating sys-
tems, such as yaw drives and actuators, is
sufficient to wipe fresh lubricant into the
contact

Avoid parking wind turbines for extended
periods

Avoid dithering of wind turbine blades; vary
pitch angle enough to entrain fresh oil and
pitch blades frequently

Ensure adequate interference fit between
shafts and couplings, gears, bearing rings,
and other interference-fit components

Use case hardening (nitriding is best), car-
burizing, and physical vapor deposition
(PVD) hard coatings to obtain adhesion-
resistant surfaces

Use cold work, case hardening, and shot
peening to induce compressive residual
stresses

Use lubricant with antiwear additives

Use oil rather than grease, and use a high-
pressure jet to flood the contact and flush
away wear debris

Store the gearbox in a vibration-free
environment

Support the gearbox on vibration isolators

Ship the gearbox with shafts locked to pre-
vent dithering motion

Ship the gearbox filled with oil

Ship the gearbox on an air-ride truck
Electrical Discharge. Gear teeth and rolling-
element bearings could be damaged if faulty insu-
lation, induction effects, and improper grounding
allows electric current to pass through the gears
and bearings. Electrical discharge damage is
caused by electric arc discharge across the oil film
between the active flanks of mating gear teeth and
between bearing rolling elements and raceways.

Wind turbine-generator bearings are especially
vulnerable to electrical discharge damage. Elec-
tric current can originate from many sources
including:

Generators, especially wind-turbine generators

Electric motors, especially variable-frequency
drives (VFDs)

Electric clutches and instrumentation

Accumulation of static charge and subsequent
discharge

During electric-resistance welding on, or
near, the gearbox if the path to ground is
not properly made around the gears rather
than through them

During lightning strikes on wind turbines
An electric arc produces temperatures high
enough to melt the contacting surfaces of gear
teeth and bearings. Microscopically, the dam-
age appears as small, hemispherical craters.
Edges of the craters are smooth and might be
surrounded by burned and fused metal in the
form of rounded particles, which were once
molten. A section taken transversely through
the craters and acid etched could reveal auste-
nitized and rehardened areas in white, bor-
dered by tempered areas in black. Sometimes
microcracks are found near the craters. Over-
all, damage to gear teeth and bearings is pro-
portional to the number and size of points of
arcing. Depending on its extent, electrical dis-
charge damage can be destructive to gear teeth
and bearings. Associated microcracking can
lead to subsequent Hertzian fatigue and bend-
ing fatigue. If electrical discharge damage is
found on gears, all associated bearings should
be examined for similar damage. Frequently,
electric discharge damage creates a periodic
pattern on bearing raceways called “fluting,”
which usually makes the bearing excessively
noisy.
Wind turbine-generator bearings are suscep-
tible to electrical discharge damage caused by
stray electrical currents, and either electrically
insulated bearing rings or ceramic balls are
used to avoid damage. Blade-pitch bearings
and the rotor shaft main bearing are also sus-
ceptible to electrical discharge damage caused
by lightning strikes on the rotor blades. How-
ever, blade-pitch bearings and rotor shaft main
bearing are usually large double-row bearings,
which makes it impractical to use insulated
bearing rings and ceramic rolling elements.
Therefore, grounding brushes and current
straps are usually used to route electric current
around blade-pitch bearings and the rotor shaft
main bearing, and direct it down to the
foundation.
Methods to Prevent Electrical Discharge.
Guidelines to mitigate and prevent electrical
discharge include:

Provide adequate electrical insulation

Provide adequate electrical grounding

Ensure proper welding procedures are
enforced
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears and Wind-Turbine Components / 885
Scuffing
Scuffing is defined as localized damage
caused by solid-phase welding between sliding
surfaces. It is accompanied by the transfer of
metal from one surface to another due to weld-
ing and tearing. It can occur in any sliding and
rolling contact where the oil film is not thick
enough to separate the surfaces. The symptoms
of scuffing are rough, matte, and torn surfaces.
Surface analysis that shows transfer of metal
from one surface to the other is proof of
scuffing.
Scuffing can occur in gear teeth when they
operate in the boundary-lubrication regime. If
the lubricant film is insufficient to prevent sig-
nificant metal-to-metal contact, the contact can
break through oxide layers that normally pro-
tect gear tooth surfaces, and the bare metal sur-
faces can weld together. Sliding that occurs
between gear teeth results in tearing of the
welded junctions, metal transfer, and cata-
strophic damage. Scuffing can occur in rolling
element bearings if the rolling elements slide
rather than roll on the raceway.
In contrast to Hertzian fatigue and bending
fatigue, which only occur after a period of run-
ning time, scuffing can occur immediately upon
start-up. New gears are most vulnerable to
scuffing when their tooth surfaces have not yet
been smoothed by running-in. For this reason,
it is wise to run-in a new gearbox under one-
half load for at least ten hours to reduce surface
roughness of the teeth before applying full load.
Gear teeth can be coated with iron-manganese
phosphate and plated with copper and silver to
protect them from scuffing during the critical
running-in period.
The basic mechanism of scuffing is not
clearly understood, but is generally believed to
be caused by intense frictional heating gener-
ated by the combination of high sliding velocity
and intense surface pressure. Blok’s (Ref 7)
critical temperature theory is believed to be
the best criterion to predict scuffing. It states
that scuffing occurs in gear teeth sliding under
boundary-lubrication conditions when the max-
imum contact temperature of the teeth reaches a
critical magnitude. For mineral oils without
antiscuff additives, each combination of oil
and rubbing materials has a constant critical
scuffing temperature, regardless of operating
conditions (Ref 8). Critical scuffing tempera-
tures are not constant for synthetic lubricants
and lubricants with antiscuff additives; they
must be determined from tests that closely sim-
ulate the operating conditions of the gears and
with in-situ tests on actual gears.
The natural oxide layer that forms on metals
when exposed to the atmosphere provides natu-
ral wear protection. Unfortunately, under
boundary lubrication, the oxide layer is easily
removed under light load, resulting in the risk
of metal-to-metal contact.
Antiwear and antiscuff additives affect lubri-
cant performance by controlling wear and fric-
tion characteristics under boundary lubrication
conditions. A properly formulated gear lubri-
cant contains additives that protect gear tooth
surfaces at both low and high contact tempera-
tures. Mechanisms by which additives function
include:

Physical adsorption

Chemical adsorption

Chemical reaction
Physical Adsorption. Lubricants with polar
additives such as long-chain fatty acids adsorb
to the oxide layers on metal surfaces to form a
layer of molecules, which reduce friction and
wear. These additives are effective at low loads
and low contact temperatures, but lose their
effectiveness at temperatures between 80 and
150  C (175 and 300  F) depending on the type
of additive. They are called lubricity additives,
and are often used in lubricants for worm gears.
Chemical Adsorption. Lubricants with
additives, such as tricresylphosphate (TCP)
and zinc dialkydithiophosphate (ZnDTP), that
chemically bond to oxide layers and metal sur-
faces provide antiwear protection, which is
more durable than that provided by physical
adsorption. They are effective at moderate
loads and moderate contact temperatures up to
about 200  C (390  F). Beyond this tempera-
ture, the chemically adsorbed films desorb, or
are rubbed off, and have limited load capacity.
Chemical Reaction. Lubricants with anti-
scuff additives are designed to react with the
parent-metal surfaces to provide protection
under severe loads and high temperatures where
oxide layers and chemically adsorbed antiwear
films on metal surfaces are disrupted. Antiscuff
additives contain at least one chemically reac-
tive nonmetal such as sulfur or phosphorus,
which readily reacts with exposed metal sur-
faces to form a tribofilm with low shear
strength. These sacrificial films reduce friction
and wear and help prevent scuffing by forming
solid films on gear tooth surfaces and inhibiting
true metal-to-metal contact. Iron-sulfide and
iron-phosphate films have high melting points,
enabling them to remain on the gear teeth even
at high contact temperatures up to about 700  C
(1290  F). Formation and loss of tribofilms are
determined by competition between the oppos-
ing processes of chemical reactivity with the
metallic surfaces and mechanical removal of
the tribofilms caused by the sliding action of
gear teeth. This constitutes a form of mild cor-
rosion, and if the additives are too chemically
reactive, they can promote chemical wear and
polishing. They can also react unfavorably with
other gearbox components such as seals and
bearing cages. Therefore, lubricant and additive
manufacturers are careful to limit additive reac-
tivity to avoid excessive corrosion.
Distinction between Antiwear and Anti-
scuff Additives. Antiwear and antiscuff addi-
tives are designed to provide protection over a
broad spectrum of operating conditions and to
protect against adhesive wear ranging from
mild to severe. Mild adhesive wear is confined
886 / Friction and Wear of Machine Components

to oxide layers of gear tooth surfaces, and it exchanger can be used with a circulating-oil ends of the path. Profile shift is used to balance
always occurs with as-manufactured gear teeth. system to cool the lubricant before it is sprayed and minimize the temperature rise that occurs
Asperities are smoothed with properly run-in at the gears. in the addendum and dedendum of the gear
gears, and wear usually subsides with time Scuffing resistance is maximized by optimiz- teeth. The temperature rise can also be reduced
and is considered normal. At the other extreme, ing gear geometry; that is, make the gear teeth by modifying the tooth profiles with slight tip
scuffing is severe adhesive wear, and can cause as small as possible (and still meet bending relief, root relief, or both, to ease the load at
catastrophic damage. Because both antiwear strength requirements) to reduce the tempera- the start and end of the engagement path where
and antiscuff additives function in similar ways, ture rise caused by sliding. Figure 1 shows that sliding velocities are the greatest. Also, gear
they are classified in terms of their activation the rolling velocity of the pinion, Vr1, and the teeth must be accurate, held rigidly in good
temperature. Antiwear additives become effec- rolling velocity of the gear, Vr2, increase line- alignment, and have lead modification to com-
tive at relatively low temperatures, and become arly from zero at the interference points to a pensate for bending and torsional deflections
ineffective at moderate temperatures, whereas maximum at each end of the path of contact. to minimize tooth loading and temperature rise.
antiscuff additives become effective at moder- Sliding velocity is represented by the distance Gear materials should have good scuffing
ately high temperatures, and remain on gear between the Vr1 and Vr2 lines. The amount of resistance. Nitrided steels, such as Nitralloy
tooth surfaces until they are rubbed off or melt sliding is proportional to the distance from the 135M, have the highest scuffing resistance,
at relatively high temperatures. Therefore, the pitch point, P, and is zero when the gear teeth whereas stainless steels are prone to scuffing
choice between antiwear and antiscuff additives contact at the pitch point, and is largest at the even under near-zero loads. The thin oxide
depends on the gear application. Antiwear addi-
tives such TCP and ZnDTP might be adequate
Center of
for high-speed, lightly loaded gears that are gear
not subjected to shock loads, whereas slow-
speed, highly loaded gears subjected to shock
loads might require antiscuff additives such as
those containing sulfur and phosphorus, alone
or in combination. In many applications, lubri-
cants with both antiwear and antiscuff additives
are required to protect against the full range of
adhesive wear, but care should be taken to
avoid aggressive chemistry, which can result
in polishing wear, micropitting, and degrada-
tion of other components. w2
For mineral oils without antiscuff additives, End of
the critical scuffing temperature increases with active
increasing viscosity and ranges from 150 to profile
300  C (300 to 570  F). The increased scuffing
resistance of high-viscosity lubricants is
believed to be due to differences in chemical
composition rather than increases in viscosity.
However, a viscosity increase also helps to Pitch ces
s
reduce the risk of scuffing by increasing the point Re
lubricant EHL film thickness and reducing the
contact temperature generated by metal-to-
metal contact.
Scuffing is controlled by the total contact
temperature, yB, which is equal to the sum of ach
pro
the gear tooth temperature, yM, and the flash Ap EA
P
temperature, yfl: Line of
action
yB ¼ yM þ yfl (Eq 1) Start of P
active
P V r2
Tooth temperature is the equilibrium temper- profile SA Sliding
ature of the surface of the gear teeth before they velocity
enter the meshing zone. Flash temperature is
V r1
the local, instantaneous temperature rise that
occurs on the gear teeth due to the frictional
heating as they pass through the meshing zone.
Anything that reduces either tooth temperature
or flash temperature reduces the total contact
temperature and lowers the risk of scuffing. w1
Higher viscosity lubricants and smoother tooth
surfaces help by increasing the specific film
thickness, which reduces frictional heat, and,
therefore, the flash temperature. Also, the lubri-
cant removes heat from the gear teeth. The Center of
lubricant must be supplied to the gear teeth in pinion
such a way that it removes heat rapidly and
maintains a low tooth temperature. A heat Fig. 1 Graphical representation of rolling velocities of pinion (Vr1) and gear (Vr2) in relation to sliding velocity

Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:

Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)

layer on stainless steel is hard and brittle and
breaks up easily under sliding loads, exposing
bare metal, thus promoting scuffing. Anodized
aluminum and titanium alloys have low scuffing
resistance similar to stainless steel. Hardness is
not a reliable indication of scuffing resistance.
Methods to Prevent Scuffing. Guidelines to
mitigate and prevent scuffing include:

Use smooth tooth surfaces produced by
grinding, honing, and polishing

Run-in new gearsets using a series of
increasing loads and appropriate speed; as a
minimum, run-in new gearsets by operating
the first ten hours at one-half load

Protect gear teeth during the critical run-
ning-in period by coating them with iron-
manganese phosphate or plating them with
copper or silver

Use lubricants with adequate viscosity for
the operating conditions

Use lubricants with antiscuff additives, such
as sulfur, phosphorus, and borate

Cool the gear teeth by supplying an adequate
amount of cool lubricant; use a heat
exchanger to cool the lubricant for circulat-
ing-oil systems

Optimize gear tooth geometry by using
small teeth, profile shift, and profile
modification

Use accurate gear teeth, rigid gear mount-
ings, good helix alignment, and lead modifi-
cation to obtain uniform load distribution
during operation

Avoid stainless steel and aluminum and tita-
nium alloys for gears, because they greatly
increase the risk of scuffing

Use nitrided steels for maximum scuffing
resistance
Hertzian Fatigue
Two lubrication-related gear tooth failure
modes caused by Hertzian fatigue are macropit-
ting and micropitting.
Macropitting is a common failure mode for
gear teeth, because they are subjected to high
Hertzian stresses and many stress cycles. For
example, through-hardened gears are typically
designed to withstand Hertzian stresses up to
1.0 GPa (145 ksi), whereas carburized gears are
typically designed to withstand Hertzian stresses
up to 1.9 GPa (275.5 ksi). In addition, a given
tooth on a pinion revolving at 3600 rpm accumu-
lates over 5  106 stress cycles every 24 h.
Macropitting is a fatigue phenomenon
(Ref 9) that occurs when a fatigue crack initi-
ates either at the surface of the gear tooth or
at a small depth below the surface. The crack
usually propagates for a short distance in a
direction roughly parallel to the tooth surface
before turning or branching to the surface. A
macropit forms when a crack grows to the
extent that it separates a piece of surface mate-
rial. If several macropits grow together, the
resulting larger macropit is referred to as a
“spall.” There is no endurance limit for
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears and Wind-Turbine Components / 887
Hertzian fatigue, and macropitting occurs even
at low stresses if gears operate long enough.
Because there is no endurance limit, gear teeth
must be designed for a suitable finite lifetime.
Hertzian stress must be kept low and material
strength and lubricant specific film thickness
high to extend macropitting life of a gearset.
Several geometric variables, including diame-
ter, face width, number of teeth, pressure angle,
and helix angle can be optimized to lower the
Hertzian stress. Material and heat treatment
are selected to obtain hard tooth surfaces with
high strength. Maximum macropitting resis-
tance is obtained with carburized gear teeth,
because they have hard surfaces, and carburiz-
ing induces beneficial compressive residual
stresses that effectively lower the load stresses.
Drawbacks with carburized gear teeth are that
they require strict manufacturing process con-
trol and they must be finished by grinding to
achieve high accuracy. Details for obtaining
high lubricant specific film thickness are
explained in the section “Elastohydrodynamic
Lubrication” in this article. However, it is gener-
ally recommended to use an adequate supply of
cool, clean, and dry lubricant with adequate vis-
cosity and a high pressure-viscosity coefficient.
Macropitting can initiate at the surface and at
a subsurface defect, such as a nonmetallic
inclusion. With gear teeth, macropits are most
often of the surface-initiated type because the
EHL film thickness is usually low, resulting in
relatively high degree of metal-to-metal con-
tact. The interaction between asperities and
contacts at defects, such as nicks, furrows, and
dents, creates surface-initiated, rather than sub-
surface-initiated cracks. Point-surface-origin
(PSO) macropitting is often caused by geomet-
ric stress concentration, GSC (Ref 10). For
high-speed gears with smooth surface finishes,
EHL film thickness is greater and subsurface-
initiated pitting, rather than surface-initiated,
could predominate. In these cases, macropitting
usually starts at a subsurface nonmetallic inclu-
sion, which serves as a point of stress concen-
tration. Cleaner steels, such as those produced
by vacuum melting, prolong the macropitting
life by reducing the number of nonmetallic
inclusions.
Contamination from water in the lubricant is
believed to promote macropitting through
hydrogen embrittlement of the metal, and solid
particles in the lubricant promote macropitting
by indenting the tooth surfaces, causing stress
concentrations, and disrupting the lubricant
film. Currently, the influence of lubricant addi-
tives on macropitting is unresolved.
Methods to Prevent Macropitting. Guidelines
to mitigate and prevent macropitting include:

Reduce Hertzian stresses by reducing loads
and optimizing gear geometry

Use clean steel, properly heat treated to
58 HRC minimum hardness, preferably by
carburizing

Use smooth tooth surfaces produced by
grinding, honing, and polishing

Use an adequate amount of cool, clean, and
dry lubricant of adequate viscosity

Ensure adequate surface hardness and case
depth after final processing for surface-hard-
ened steels
Micropitting. On relatively soft gear tooth
surfaces, such as those of through-hardened
gears, Hertzian fatigue forms large pits with
dimensions on the order of millimeters. With
surface-hardened gears (for example, carbur-
ized, nitrided, and induction and flame hard-
ened), pitting can occur on a much smaller
scale, typically only 10 mm deep. To the naked
eye, areas where micropitting occurred appear
frosted, and “frosting” is a popular term for
micropitting. Japanese researchers (Ref 11)
refer to the failure mode as “gray staining,”
because the light-scattering properties of micro-
pitting give the gear teeth a gray appearance.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows
that micropitting proceeds by the same fatigue
process as classical macropitting, except the
pits are extremely small. Errichello (Ref 12)
describes the morphology of micropitting and
gives several examples of micropitting on wind
turbine gears and bearings.
In many cases, micropitting does not cause
catastrophic failure; it might occur only in
patches and can arrest after the tribological con-
ditions improve after running-in. Mild polishing
wear removes micropits and smooths tooth sur-
faces. However, arrest is unpredictable, and
micropitting generally reduces gear tooth accu-
racy, increases noise, and can escalate to full-
scale macropitting and other failure modes such
as scuffing and bending fatigue (Ref 10–12).
Specific film thickness is an important
parameter that influences micropitting. Damage
occurs most readily on gear teeth meshing with
teeth that have rough surfaces, especially when
they are lubricated using low-viscosity lubri-
cants. Surface roughness is the most important
parameter, and it has a stronger influence than
EHL film thickness. Gears finished using spe-
cial grinding wheels to a mirror-like finish
(Ref 13) effectively eliminate micropitting.
Slow-speed gears are prone to micropitting
due to their low EHL film thickness. Therefore,
to prevent micropitting, the specific film thick-
ness should be maximized by using smooth
gear tooth surfaces, high-viscosity lubricants,
and high speeds. Experiments (Ref 3) show that
flame-hardened and induction-hardened gears
have less resistance to micropitting than carbur-
ized gears of the same hardness. This is proba-
bly due to the lower carbon content of the
surface of flame-hardened and induction-hard-
ened gears.
Run-in is critical because it is the incubation
period for micropitting. During incubation, con-
tact between asperities on opposing surfaces
occurs frequently, causing plastic deformation
of asperities; the principle cause of micropit-
ting. In addition, adhesion and abrasion at aspe-
rities generate wear debris. Using a series of
increasing loads enables progressive reduction
888 / Friction and Wear of Machine Components
of roughness through the action of mild adhe-
sion and limited plastic deformation. Controlled
run-in minimizes plastic deformation while lim-
iting adhesion and abrasion to the iron oxide
layer covering asperities. Mild adhesion con-
sists of small junctions that generate wear parti-
cles smaller than the surface roughness. If
adhesion remains mild, asperities are eventually
flattened by adhesion and plastic deformation,
and subsequent deformation remains elastic
for that particular load. When run-in is com-
plete, asperities carry load solely by elastic
deformation. By comparison, if adhesion causes
strong bonds that break through oxide layers,
adhesion escalates to scuffing generating large
wear particles, and surfaces become rougher
rather than smoother. Because run-in properties
are likely to depend on lubricant chemistry,
temperature, and sliding velocity, experiments
on actual gears are necessary to determine a
good run-in lubricant. Experiments (Ref 14)
show that zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZnDTP)
antiwear additives are detrimental to run-in.
Water contamination promotes micropitting in
gears and bearings, and significantly reduces
the anticorrosion, EHL film formation, and fric-
tion reducing properties of lubricants.
Methods to Prevent Micropitting. Guidelines
to mitigate and prevent micropitting include
those involving oil film thickness, surface rough-
ness, gear geometry, gear metallurgy, and lubri-
cant properties. Every measure might not be
achievable or applicable for a given application,
but as many as possible should be implemented.
Increase oil film thickness by:

Using the highest practical oil viscosity

Running gears at high speed if possible

Cooling gear teeth

Using synthetic oil if gear tooth temperature
is >80  C (>175  F)
Reduce surface roughness by:

Avoiding shot-peened flanks unless they are
polished after shot peening

Honing and polishing gear teeth, and run-
ning gears against a hard, smooth master

Making the hardest gear as smooth as
possible

illustration. An actual EHL contact is typically
Coating teeth with iron-manganese phos-
phate, Cu, and Ag to limit adhesion and
scuffing risk

Running-in with a special lubricant without
ZnDTP antiwear additives

Prefiltering lubricant and using a fine filter
(6 mm) during run-in

Keeping oil cool during run-in

Running-in gears using a series of increasing
loads and appropriate speed

Draining lubricant and flushing gearbox after
run-in, changing the filter element, and filling
with filtered service lubricant
Optimize gear geometry by:

Using at least 20 teeth in the pinion for
parallel-axis gears
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)

Using a non-hunting gear ratio

Using helical gears with axial contact ratio
mF 2.0

Using aspect ratio (face width to diameter
ratio), ma, 1.0 for spur and single-helical
gears

Using aspect ratio (face width to diameter
ratio), ma, 2.0 for double-helical gears

Minimizing Hertzian stress by specifying
high accuracy and optimizing center dis-
tance, face width, pressure angle, and helix
angle

Using profile shift to minimize specific
sliding

Using proper profile and lead modification

Avoiding tip-to-root interference
Optimize metallurgy by:

Maximizing pinion hardness

Making pinion 2 HRC points harder than the
wheel

Using ffi 20% retained austenite
Optimize lubricant properties by:

Using oil with high micropitting resistance
as determined by tests on actual gears

Using oil with low traction coefficient

Using oil with high pressure-viscosity co-
efficient

Avoiding oils with aggressive antiscuff ad-
ditives

Avoiding oils with viscosity index improvers

Keeping oil cool

Keeping oil free of solid contaminants

Keeping oil dry
Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication
Gear teeth, rolling element bearings, cams,
and other nonconforming Hertzian contacts are
lubricated by the EHL mechanism. Figure 2
shows a lubricated Hertzian contact with film
pressure and film thickness distribution
between two steel cylinders in rolling contact.
Figure 2 exaggerates the vertical distance and
shrinks the horizontal distance for purposes of
1000 times wider than the film thickness. The
contact starts with a slowly converging inlet
region where the lubricant is entrained and
hydrodynamic pressure is generated. Film pres-
sure gradually increases in the inlet region until
it reaches the leading edge of the Hertzian
region where the pressure quickly builds to
values that are essentially equal to the Hertzian
contact stress. Under high pressure, lubricant
viscosity increases exponentially to the extent
that the lubricant cannot escape because its vis-
cosity is too high. Within the Hertzian region,
the bodies are separated by a nearly constant
film thickness. At the end of the Hertzian
region, there is a constriction near the outlet
that forms the minimum film thickness. Within
the Hertzian region, film pressure follows the
Hertzian pressure, except for a sharp spike in
pressure just upstream from the constriction at
the outlet. Within the constriction, film pressure
drops rapidly to atmospheric pressure.
The Inlet Region. The lubricant adsorbed on
the pinion and wheel teeth surfaces is entrained
into the EHL contact by the rolling motion of
the gear teeth. Lubricant entrainment is greatly
facilitated by its viscosity increase because high
viscosity resists flow, makes it more difficult to
squeeze the lubricant out, and viscous drag
forces of the gear teeth cause it to move with
the surfaces into the Hertzian region. As a
result, the inlet pumps the film up to a thickness
sufficient to separate the opposing gear teeth.
EHL film thickness is determined by the lubri-
cant viscosity and pressure-viscosity coefficient
in the inlet region. For gears, lubricant
entrained into the inlet is molecularly attached
to pinion and wheel teeth surfaces, and consists
of thin boundary layers that immediately take
on the bulk surface temperatures of the pinion
and wheel teeth. Consequently, EHL film thick-
ness is determined by the equilibrium bulk sur-
face temperatures of the pinion and wheel teeth
in the inlet region before the lubricant reaches
the Hertzian region.
Bulk Surface Temperature. When the pin-
ion and wheel are running under a given load,
pinion and wheel teeth surfaces are heated by
the sliding friction between the gear teeth, and
they gradually increase in temperature until
finally reaching the equilibrium bulk surface
temperatures after many revolutions.
Inlet Shear Heating. In a fully flooded EHL
contact, only a fraction of the lubricant can pass
through the contact. Therefore, some of the
lubricant is rejected and reverse flow occurs in
the inlet. Furthermore, if there is sliding in
EHL pressure
Hertzian
pressure
(a)
vr2
hmin
hc
vr1
bH
Inlet Hertzian Exit
region region region
(b)
Fig. 2 Regions of EHL contact between the mating
gear teeth of a gearset: (a) plot of pressure
distribution within contact zone; and (b) schematic
showing three distinct regions on pinion and gear tooth
surfaces and key parameters determining oil film
lubrication, where bH is semiwidth of Hertzian contact
band, hc is central film thickness, and hmin is minimum
film thickness

addition to rolling, heat is generated by shear-
ing of the lubricant. Churning and shearing gen-
erate heat that increases the lubricant
temperature above the average bulk surface
temperatures. Therefore, the temperature that
controls lubricant viscosity and EHL film thick-
ness is the temperature of the lubricant in the
inlet. Empirical equations (Ref 15) are available
to correct calculations of isothermal EHL film
thickness to account for inlet shear heating.
Starvation. To form full EHL film thickness,
the inlet region must be fully flooded. However,
the inlet region might be starved of lubricant if
the lubricant supply is inadequate, if very high
speed causes fling off of the lubricant, or both.
Under these conditions, EHL film thickness
could be reduced. Empirical equations
(Ref 16) are available to correct calculations
of isothermal EHL film thickness to account
for lubricant starvation.
The Hertzian Region. Lubricant viscosity
increases by a factor of 1000 by the time it
enters the Hertzian region, and is trapped in
the contact. At maximum Hertzian pressures
typical in gears and rolling element bearings,
the lubricant undergoes a phase transition into
a solid glassy state. From this point on, the
lubricant no longer behaves as a Newtonian
fluid, and it can be considered a pseudo-solid.
In the Hertzian region, the surfaces of the bod-
ies are parallel and separated by the central film
thickness that has an essentially constant thick-
ness. The film within the Hertzian region is
extremely stiff. Therefore, increasing load
deforms the bodies more than the central film
thickness decreases. Consequently, EHL con-
tacts are relatively insensitive to changes in
load, and the main effect of increasing load is
to deform the surfaces, which increases the area
of the Hertzian region, but does little to alter
the shape of the inlet zone where the EHL film
is formed. Consequently, increasing load leaves
the film thickness virtually unchanged.
Sliding within the Hertzian Region. Slid-
ing friction within the EHL film increases the
bulk temperature of the gear teeth from a cold
start by accumulating heat from each tooth
engagement. The bulk temperature of the gear
teeth increases until the heat input is equal to
the heat loss to the surroundings. When the
bulk temperature reaches equilibrium, there is
no further change in gear tooth bulk surface
temperature unless the operating conditions
change. Heat input is confined to the immediate
area of the Hertzian region, and its duration is
only a fraction of a millisecond. Consequently,
frictional heat within the EHL film is removed
by conduction through the film into the tooth
surfaces and by convection as the hot oil exits
the outlet region. Due to the short contact time,
the heat penetrates only a shallow distance
into the gear teeth and is rapidly dissipated.
Consequently, as the contact point moves on,
the heat input on a prior contact point disap-
pears immediately and the surface temperature
of the gear teeth returns promptly to the equi-
librium bulk temperature. After one revolution
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears and Wind-Turbine Components / 889
of the gear, a particular point on the gear flank emerging from the wake of the outlet region is
comes into engagement with essentially the indistinguishable from the lubricant that entered
same bulk temperature as the previous engage- the inlet region. The film forming capability of
ment. Although frictional heating does not the hydrodynamic pressure generated in the
directly alter the film thickness within the Hert- inlet region is governed by the local viscosity of
zian region, any increase of the bulk surface the lubricant in the inlet, which is controlled by
temperatures due to frictional heating indirectly the bulk temperatures of the surfaces and inlet
reduces film thickness by decreasing the viscos- shear heating. Consequently, the central film
ity of the lubricant in the inlet region. The slid- thickness is established by the lubricant properties
ing is significant because it generates traction in the inlet region. Once in the Hertzian region, the
forces that result in energy losses. If the lubri- lubricant functions as a pseudo-solid where it
cant behaved like a Newtonian fluid, the high influences the traction coefficient, boundary tribo-
viscosity would lead to extremely high traction films, and bulk surface temperatures. Finally, the
force. However, when subjected to high shear outlet region adjusts the minimum film thickness
stresses, the lubricant fortunately behaves like to maintain continuity of lubricant flow.
a plastic pseudo-solid with limited shear Probability of Wear. Gear tooth load capac-
strength characterized by its traction coeffi- ity based on the probability of wear is calcu-
cient. Bulk surface temperatures are controlled lated in AGMA 925-A03 (Ref 2), which
by heat generated in the Hertzian region, and calculates wear risk based on EHL specific film
temperatures can vary significantly depending thickness using the Dowson and Toyoda equa-
on the molecular structure of the lubricant base tion. Although specific film thickness is a major
stock, which influences a lubricant’s solidifica- factor governing adhesive wear, the properties
tion pressure, shear strength, and traction coef- of the lubricant and its additives exert a strong
ficient. Furthermore, depending on antiwear influence. Therefore, to help prevent adhesive
and antiscuff additives that might be in the wear, the physical and chemical properties of the
lubricant, sliding and heat generate boundary lubricant should conform to the requirements of
tribofilms on tooth surfaces that help prevent ANSI/AGMA 9005-F16 (Ref 17). It is especially
adhesive wear. important that the lubricant have adequate anti-
Shear Thinning. Lubricants containing high wear additives to ensure adequate wear resistance.
molecular weight polymers, which are additives EHL Film Thickness Analysis. EHL film
known as viscosity index (VI) improvers, could thickness is calculated in accordance with AGMA
lose viscosity under high shear rates that occur 925-A03 (Ref 2) using Eq 2 to 18:
in the Hertzian region and reduce EHL film 3
thickness, which is known as shear thinning. hc ¼ Hc rn  10 (Eq 2)
The Outlet Region. As the lubricant leaves
the Hertzian zone, film pressure tends to boost G0:56 U0:69
Hc ¼ 3:06 (Eq 3)
lubricant flow toward the outlet region. The W0:10
amount of lubricant within the contact is con-
G ¼ aEr (Eq 4)
trolled by the inlet, and continuity of flow can
only be maintained if there is a local restriction Figure 3 gives values of pressure-viscosity
in the outflow, which causes a constriction to coefficients (used in Eq 4) versus tooth temper-
form at the outlet. This is the position where ature for typical gear lubricants.
the minimum film thickness occurs. A sharp
spike in film pressure is generated next to the ZM ve
U¼  106 (Eq 5)
constriction on the upstream side. After the 2Er rn
pressure spike, pressure drops abruptly to atmo-
Figure 4 gives values of dynamic viscosity
spheric pressure downstream of the spike, and
(used in Eq 5) versus tooth temperature for
lubricant viscosity returns to its atmospheric
viscosity. Consequently, the contact pressure mineral lubricants and ester-based gear
lubricants.
between the surfaces is negligible in the area
of minimum film thickness. The divergent XG wn
region of the outlet generates negative pressure, W¼ (Eq 6)
Er rn
which causes dissolved gases in the lubricant to
come out of solution. This ruptures the lubri-
hc Lx 1=2
 
cant film, which cavitates and forms a wavy l¼ (Eq 7)
sx 2bH
wake consisting of separate lubricant streamers
intermixed with air.
1=2
Significance of the Three Regions. The sx ¼ Ra1 2 þ Ra2 2 (Eq 8)
inlet region pumps the film up, the Hertzian
Fwn KO KH KV
region rides the film, and the outlet region dis- wn ¼ (Eq 9)
Lmin
charges it. As the lubricant passes through the
three regions, its viscosity increases exponen-  1=2
8XG wn rn
tially, and the lubricant changes phase from a bH ¼ (Eq 10)
free-flowing fluid in the inlet region, to a pEr
pseudo-solid within the Hertzian region, and 1
1  n1 2 1  n2 2

back to a free-flowing fluid in the outlet region, Er ¼ 2 þ (Eq 11)
all within a matter of milliseconds. Lubricant E1 E2
890 / Friction and Wear of Machine Components

Temperature, ºF where vr1 and vr2 are rolling velocities of pinion

32 68 104 140 176 212 248 284 320 356 and wheel in mm/s, o1 and o2 are angular velo-
cities of pinion and wheel in rad/s, and r1 and
ISO VG r2 are transverse profile radii of pinion and
3200 AGMA wheel in mm.
3.50E-02 Lube No.
2200 Entraining velocity, which draws oil
1500 between contacting gear teeth and increases
1000 EHL film thickness, is given by:
3.00E-02 680
Pressure-viscosity coefficient, mm2/N

460 8A
320 8 ve ¼ vr1 þ vr2 (Eq 15)
220 7
2.50E-02 150 6
100 5 Sliding velocity, is detrimental because it
68 4 generates heat, reduces efficiency, and increases
46 3 asperity distress. High sliding velocity generates
2.00E-02 32 2
1 frictional power loss by shearing the oil film and
shearing boundary films on contacting asperities.
1.50E-02 High sliding velocity also increases flash temper-
ature and risk of scuffing. Sliding velocities are
MIL-L-7808K Grade 4
given by:
1.00E-02 MIL-L-23699E
vs1 ¼ vr1  vr2 (Eq 16)
MIL-L-7808K Grade 3
and
5.00E-03
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 vs2 ¼ vs1 (Eq 17)
Temperature, ºC
Wear Risk Analysis. AGMA 925-A03 uses
Fig. 3 Plot of pressure-viscosity coefficient versus bulk temperature for non-VI-improved mineral oil and ester-based empirical methods to relate calculated values
gear lubricants of minimum specific film thickness, lmin, to
empirical values of mean specific film thick-
Temperature, °F ness, mlmin, which uses a Gaussian distribution
32 68 104 140 176 212 248 284 320 356 to calculate the probability of wear, given by
104 the expression:
ISO VG
3200
2200 lmin  ml min
1500 x¼ (Eq 18)
sl min
1000 AGMA
680 Lube No. As shown by the exponents in Eq 3, film
103 460 thickness is essentially determined by the
320 entraining velocity, lubricant viscosity, and
8A
220 8 pressure-viscosity coefficient; the elastic
Dynamic viscosity, cP

150 7
6 properties of the gear teeth and the load have
100
5 relatively small influences. The relatively
68
102 4 high stiffness of the oil film makes it insensi-
46 3 tive to load, and an increase in load simply
32 2
1 increases the elastic deformation of the tooth
surfaces and widens the contact area, rather
than decreasing the film thickness.
MIL-L-23699E Load-sharing factor, XG, accounts for load
10
sharing between succeeding pairs of teeth as
MIL-L-7808K Grade 4 affected by profile modification (tip and root
MIL-L-7808K Grade 3
relief) and whether the pinion or wheel is the
driver. Figure 5 shows load-sharing factors ver-
sus pinion-roll angle for unmodified and modi-
1 fied tooth profiles.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Probability of Wear. Figure 6 is a guide to
Temperature, °C the probability of wear-related distress based
on specific film thickness, lmin, and the
Fig. 4 Plot of dynamic viscosity versus bulk temperature for non-VI-improved mineral oil and ester-based gear operating pitchline velocity, V.
lubricants
Blok’s contact temperature theory states
r1 r2
that scuffing occurs in gear teeth sliding
rn ¼ (Eq 12) and reduces the number and severity of asperity under boundary-lubricated conditions when
ðr2
r1 Þ cos bb contacts. Rolling velocities are given by: the maximum contact temperature of the gear
vr1 ¼ o1 r1 (Eq 13) teeth reaches a critical magnitude (Ref 7).
Rolling Velocities. Rolling velocity is ben- Contact temperature is equal to the sum
eficial because it entrains lubricant between and
of the bulk temperature and the flash
contacting teeth, increases oil film thickness, vr2 ¼ o2 r2 (Eq 14) temperature.

Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:

Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
 Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears and Wind-Turbine Components / 891

Contact Temperature Analysis. Contact
temperature is calculated in accordance with
AGMA 925-A03, and is given by:
yB ¼ yM þ yfl
and
31:62 K mm XG wn jvr1  vr2 j
yfl ¼  
ðbH Þ1=2 BM1 ðvr1 Þ1=2 þ BM2 ðvr2 Þ1=2
Scuffing Risk Analysis. AGMA 925-A03
uses empirical methods to relate calculated
values of maximum contact temperature to
empirical values of scuffing temperature, which
uses a Gaussian distribution to calculate the
probability of scuffing, given by:
x¼
yBmax  yS
sys
Gear tooth temperature, yM, is the equilib-
rium temperature of the gear teeth before they
enter the meshing zone. In some cases, the tooth
temperature can be significantly higher than the
temperature of the oil supplied to the gear mesh.
For example, in a test with ultrahigh-speed gears
(Ref 18), the pinion tooth temperature was
135  C (275  F), which is 95  C (170  F) higher
than the oil inlet temperature. For turbine gears
at lower speeds, the temperature rise of gear teeth
over the inlet oil temperature can range from
11 C at 60 m/s (20  F at 197 ft/s) pitch line veloc-
ity to 22  C at 80 m/s (40  F at 262 ft/s. At similar
speeds, the tooth temperature rise of aircraft gears
with less oil flow can range from 22 to 33  C (40
Scuffing temperature, yS, is the contact tem-
perature at which scuffing is likely to occur with
the chosen combination of lubricant and gear
materials. For mineral oils without antiscuff addi-
(Eq 19)
tives and with low concentrations of antiscuff
additives, the scuffing temperature is independent
of the operating conditions for a fairly wide
range. For these oils, the scuffing temperature
(Eq 20)
can be correlated with the oil composition. The
viscosity grade is a convenient index of the com-
position, and, thus, of the scuffing temperature.
For non-antiscuff mineral oils, the mean
scuffing temperature (50% chance of scuffing)
in  C is given by:
yS ¼ 63 þ 33 ln v40
where v40 is the kinematic viscosity at 40  C
(Eq 21) (104  F) in mm2/s.
For mineral oils with low concentrations of
antiscuff additives, the mean scuffing tempera-
ture in  C is given by:
yS ¼ 118 þ 33 ln v40
The scuffing temperature determined from
Forschungsstelle für Zahnräder und Getriebebau,
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.5
Specific film thickness, λ
or FZG (Technical Institute for the Study of Gears
and Drive Mechanisms) test gears for mineral oils
without antiscuff additives and with low concen-
trations of antiscuff additives can be extended to
different gear steels, heat treatments, and surface
treatments by introducing an empirical welding
factor:
yS ¼ yM; test þ Xw yfl; test (Eq 24)
where Xw is the welding factor (see Table 2),
yMtest is the bulk tooth temperature of the test
gears, and yfltest is the maximum flash tempera-
ture of the test gears.
(Eq 22) Scuffing temperatures for synthetic lubricants
typically used with carburized gears in the aero-
space industry are shown in Table 3.
For mineral oils with high concentrations of
antiscuff additives (e.g., hypoid gear oils),
research is still needed to determine whether
the scuffing temperature is dependent on the
(Eq 23) materials and operating conditions. Special
attention has to be given to the correlation
between test conditions and actual and design
conditions.
5%
40%
80%

Probability of wear
to 60  F). related distress

XΓ 0.2

1 0.1
Load-sharing factor

2⁄
3 0.05

1⁄
3
0.02

0
ε1 ε2 ε4 ε5 0.01
0.25 0.5 2.5 5.0 25.0 50.0 250.0
(a) Pinion roll angle
Pitch line velocity, m/s
XΓ
Fig. 6 Probability of wear distress as a function of specific film thickness and pitch line velocity (m/s). Source: Ref 2
Pinion driving
Load-sharing factor

1 Table 3 Mean scuffing temperature for

6⁄
7 Table 2 Welding factor for select gear synthetic lubricants typically used for
Gear driving
steels carburized gears in aerospace applications
Mean scuffing temperature
Material Welding factor (Xw) Lubricant (uS),  C ( F)
Through-hardened steel 1.00 MIL-L-6081, grade 1005 129 (265)
Phosphated steel 1.25 MIL-L-7808 205 (400)
1⁄
7 Copper-plated steel 1.50 MIL-L-23699 220 (430)
0 Nitrided steel 1.50 DERD2487 225 (440)
ε1 ε2 ε4 ε5 Carburized steel DERD2497 240 (465)
Retained austenite content <20% 1.15 DOD-L-85734 260 (500)
(b) Pinion roll angle Retained austenite content 20 to 30% 1.00 ISO VG 32 PAO 280 (535)
Retained austenite contente >30% 0.85 Dexron II(a) 290 (555)
Stainless steel 0.45
Fig. 5 Plot of load-sharing factor (XG) versus pinion
(a) Dexron is a registered trademark of General Motors Co. Source:
roll angle: (a) unmodified tooth profiles, and Source: Ref 2 Ref 2
(b) modified tooth profiles

Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:

Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
892 / Friction and Wear of Machine Components
Lubricant Selection
The choice of lubricant depends on the type
of gearing and enclosure, operating speed and
load, ambient temperature, and method of lubri-
cant application. Lubricants used for most gears
are oil, grease, adhesive open gear lubricant,
and solid lubricant.
The optimum lubricant is the product that
meets application requirements and is least
expensive, considering both initial cost and
maintenance costs.
Oil is the most widely used lubricant,
because it is readily distributed to gears and
bearings and has both good lubricating and
cooling properties. In addition, contamination
is readily removed by filtering periodically
and draining and replacing the oil. However, it
requires an oil-tight enclosure provided with
adequate shaft seals.
Synthetic lubricants are used in applications
(e.g., aircraft gas turbines) where the oil must
operate over a wide temperature range and have
good oxidation stability at high temperatures.
Ester and hydrocarbon synthetic lubricants have
high viscosity indices, giving them good fluid-
ity and low viscosities at very low tempera-
tures, and acceptable viscosities at high
temperatures. The volatility of esters is lower
than that of mineral oils of the same viscosity,
thus reducing oil loss at high temperature.
Despite their long service life, the extra cost
of synthetic lubricants generally cannot be justi-
fied for oil-bath systems unless there are extreme
temperatures involved, because the oil must be
changed frequently to remove contamination.
Grease is suitable only for low-speed,
low-load applications because it does not circu-
late well, and it is a relatively poor coolant.
Grease-lubricated gears are generally boundary
lubricated, because the grease is either pushed
aside or thrown from the gear teeth. Contamina-
tion from wear particles and other debris is usu-
ally trapped in the grease and requires costly
maintenance to eliminate. Grease is often used
to avoid leakage from enclosures that are not
oil tight. Considering all factors, an oil lubri-
cant is usually more economical and reliable
than a grease lubricant for gear lubrication.
However, it is impractical to use oil lubrication
in some applications. For example, grease is
used for wind-turbine yaw gears, and gears in
blade-pitch mechanisms. The limited motion
of these components makes them susceptible
to fretting corrosion, and they must be
inspected regularly and the grease must replen-
ished or replaced to avoid fretting damage.
Grease is also used for wind turbine-generator
bearings, blade-pitch bearings, yaw bearings,
and the rotor shaft main bearing. These bear-
ings require stringent maintenance of the grease
including initial fill, replenishment fill, and
replenishment interval. Both manual and auto-
matic regreasing systems are used.
Adhesive open-gear lubricants are viscous
adhesive semifluids used on large low-speed
open gears, such as those used in iron ore
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
and cement mills, antenna drives, bridge
drives, cranes, and so on. Gears in these appli-
cations run slowly, and, therefore, are bound-
ary lubricated. The lubricant must bond
strongly to resist being thrown off the gear
teeth. However, the squeezing and sliding
action of gear teeth tends to push the lubricant
into the roots of the gear teeth where it is rela-
tively ineffective. These lubricants are applied
by hand brushing and by automatic systems,
which deliver an intermittent spray. Some
open-gear lubricants are thinned with a
quick-evaporating solvent/diluent to make
them easier to apply. Open-gear lubricants
share the disadvantages of grease lubrication,
and they are especially costly (in addition to
being messy) to maintain. For these reasons,
the trend is away from open gears and toward
the use of enclosed oil-lubricated gearboxes
when possible.
Solid lubricants are used when one or more
conditions are encountered:

Temperature is too high or too low for oil or
grease

Leakage cannot be tolerated

Gears must operate in a vacuum or inert
atmosphere
Solid lubricants include:

Bonded coatings in which lubricant powders
such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2),
graphite, and polymide are contained in a
inorganic binder, which is applied to the
gear teeth and cured to form a solid film
coating

Ion-plated soft metallic films such as Au,
Ag, Cu, and Pb

Diamondlike carbon coatings (DLC) applied
by physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemi-
cal vapor deposition (CVD), and ion
implantation
Solid lubricants are expensive to apply and have
limited wear lives. However, in many applica-
tions, such as spacecraft, they are the only alter-
native and can provide excellent service.
Oil-Lubricant Applications
Of the lubricants mentioned previously, only
oil is discussed in greater detail in this article.
Oil should be used as the lubricant unless
operating conditions preclude its use. Gener-
ally, the simplest and least expensive lubrica-
tion system for gears is a totally enclosed oil
bath of mineral oil.
Spur, Helical, and Bevel Gears. Lubrica-
tion requirements for spur, helical, straight-
bevel, and spiral-bevel gears are essentially
the same. For this class of gears, the magni-
tudes of the loads and sliding speeds are simi-
lar, and requirements for viscosity and
antiscuff properties are virtually identical.
Many industrial spur- and helical-gear units
are lubricated using rust- and oxidation-
inhibited (R & O) mineral oils. Low-viscosity
R & O oils, commonly called turbine oils, are
used in many high-speed gear units where gear
tooth loads are relatively low. Mineral oils
without antiscuff additives are suitable for
high-speed lightly loaded gears where the high
entraining velocity of the gear teeth develops
thick EHL oil films. In these cases, the most
important property of the lubricant is viscosity.
Antiscuff additives are unnecessary because the
gear teeth are separated, eliminating metal-to-
metal contact and the scuffing mode of failure.
Slower speed gears, especially carburized gears
tend to be more heavily loaded. These gears
generally require higher viscosity lubricants
with antiscuff additives.
Hypoid gears, such as those used for automo-
tive axles, are especially prone to scuffing
because they are heavily loaded and have high
sliding velocities. For these reasons, hypoid
gear oils have the higher concentrations of anti-
scuff additives.
In critical applications, the contact tempera-
ture should be calculated using Eq 19 and com-
pared with the scuffing temperature of the
lubricant. This quantitative method is effective
for selecting a lubricant with adequate scuffing
resistance.
Worm gears have high sliding velocity,
which generates significant frictional losses.
Fortunately, their tooth loads are relatively
light, and they are successfully lubricated using
mineral oils compounded with lubricity
additives. These oils contain 3 to 10% fatty
oil or low-acid tallow. The polar molecules of
the additive form surface films by physical
adsorption and by reaction with the surface
oxide to form a metallic soap, which serves as
a low shear strength film, improving the lubric-
ity, or friction-reducing property. Polyalphaole-
fin (PAO) and especially polyalkyleneglycol
(PAG) synthetic oils have the advantage of
increasing efficiency significantly.
Selection of Gear Lubricant
Viscosity
The recommendations of AGMA 9005-F16
(Ref 17) should be followed when selecting
lubricants and lubricant viscosity for enclosed
gear drives that operate at pitch line velocities
35 m/s (115 ft/s). ANSI/AGMA 6011-J14
(Ref 19) should be consulted for high-speed
drives (>35 m/s). ANSI/AGMA/AWEA 6006-
A03 (Ref 20) provide comprehensive guide-
lines for lubricant selection, condition monitor-
ing, and maintenance of wind turbine-gearbox
lubricants.
As discussed previously in the section “Gear
Tooth Lubrication-Related Failure Modes,” in
this article, viscosity is one of the most impor-
tant lubricant properties, and the higher the
viscosity, the greater the protection against
the various gear tooth failures. However, vis-
cosity must be limited to avoid excessive heat
generation and power loss from churning and

shearing of the lubricant by high-speed gears
and bearings. The gear-drive operating tem-
perature determines the operating viscosity of
the lubricant. A lubricant that is too viscous
generates excessive heat, which raises the
lubricant temperature and reduces its viscos-
ity. This eventually reaches a point of dimin-
ishing returns where increasing the starting
viscosity of the lubricant leads to a higher
operating temperature and a higher oxidation
rate, without a significant gain in operating
viscosity.
Gear drives operating in cold climates must
have a lubricant that circulates freely and does
not cause high starting torques. A candidate
gear lubricant should have a pour point at least
5  C (9  F) lower than the expected minimum
ambient start-up temperature. Typical pour
points for mineral gear oils are 7  C
(+20  F), whereas synthetic gear lubricants
have significantly lower pour points of about
40  C (40  F). Pour point depressants are
used to tailor pour points of mineral lubricants
for automotive hypoid gears to be as low as
40  C.
The pitch line speed of the gears is a good
index of the required viscosity. An empirical
equation for determining required viscosity is:
n40 ¼ 500=ðV Þ 0:5 (Eq 25)
where v40 is the lubricant kinematic viscosity at
40  C, or 104  F (in cSt), and V is the operating
pitch line velocity (m/s) given by:
V ¼ d n=19; 098 (Eq 26)
where d is the operating pitch diameter of pin-
ion (mm) and n is the pinion speed (rpm).
In critical applications, the specific film
thickness, l, should be calculated using Eq 7.
Specific film thickness is a useful measure of
the lubrication regime. It can be used with
Fig. 6 as an approximate guide to the probabil-
ity of wear-related surface distress. Fig 6 is
based on the data in (Ref 2), which were
obtained from several hundred laboratory tests
and field applications of gear drives.
Application of Gear Lubricants
The method of applying the lubricant to the
gear teeth depends primarily on the pitch line
velocity.
Splash lubrication systems are the simplest,
but are limited to a pitch line velocity of ~15
m/s (~50 ft/s). The gears should dip into the
oil bath for about twice the tooth depth to pro-
vide adequate splash for pinions and bearings
and to reduce losses due to churning. The gear
housing should have troughs to capture oil
flowing down the housing walls, and channel
it to the bearings.
The range of splash lubrication can be
extended to ~30 m/s (~100 ft/s) by using baffles
and oil pans to reduce churning. However, at
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears and Wind-Turbine Components / 893
velocities >15 m/s, it is usually necessary to pro-
vide auxiliary cooling with fans and improve heat
transfer by adding fins to the housing.
Pressure-Fed Systems. Above 30 m/s, most
gears are lubricated using a pressure-fed sys-
tem. For gearboxes with rolling-element bear-
ings, spraying oil at the gear mesh only and
relying on splash to lubricate the bearings is
permissible up to a maximum pitch line veloc-
ity of 35 m/s (115 ft/s). Above this speed and
for gear drives with journal bearings, both the
gears and bearings should be pressure-fed.
Oil jets should be placed on the incoming
side of the gear mesh for pitch line velocities
40 m/s (130 ft/s). Above 40 m/s, more oil
is needed for cooling than for lubricating,
and oil flow removes heat best when directed
at the outgoing side of the gear mesh where
the oil jets can strike the hot drive-side of the
gear teeth. However, for very high-speed gears
(Ref 18) (>80 m/s, or >260 ft/s), there is a
danger that the amount of oil carried to the
incoming side of the gear mesh could be inad-
equate, and it is prudent to add a supplemen-
tary flow at the incoming side of the gear
mesh. Generally, about two-thirds of the oil
flow should be supplied to the outgoing
side of the mesh for cooling, and one-third of
the flow directed at the incoming side for
lubrication. Placement of the oil jets is crucial
when pitch line velocities are >100 m/s
(>330 ft/s). At speeds this high, experiments
are required to find the optimum number and
location for the oil jets.
In pressure-fed systems, parameters that must
be designed to ensure adequate lubrication and
cooling of the gear mesh include:

Quantity of flow

Jet size

Feed pressure


Number of jets
General guidelines based on experience and
experimentation are available for specifying
these parameters, but each application must be
evaluated independently based on its particular
operating conditions and requirements.
Quantity of Flow. The required quantity of
oil flow, q, is calculated by:
q ¼ P=c (Eq 27)
where q is oil flow rate (in L/min), P is trans-
mitted power (in kW), and c is a constant
(Table 4).
In a typical industrial application transmit-
ting 200 kW, where weight is not critical, a
value of c = 40 kW/(L/min) might be selected,
resulting in a copious flow of 5 L/min
(1.3 gal/min). By comparison, for a high-
efficiency aviation application transmitting
200 kW, where weight is critical, a value of c
= 160 kW/(L/min) might be chosen, resulting
in a lean flow of 1.25 L/min (0.3 gal/min).
Some applications may require different flow
rates than those given in Table 4. For instance,
wide-face, high-speed gearing may require a
higher flow rate to ensure uniform cooling and
full-face coverage.
The proper jet size, feed pressure, and num-
ber of jets must be determined to maintain the
proper flow rate, jet velocity, and full-face
coverage.
Jet Size. The diameter of a jet can be calcu-
lated for a given flow rate and pressure based
on the viscosity of the oil at the operating
temperature (Ref 21). There are practical
limitations on jet size, and the minimum recom-
mended size is 0.8 mm (0.03 in.). Contaminants
in the oil can clog a smaller sized jet. Typical
jet diameters range from 0.8 to 3.0 mm (0.3 to
0.12 in.).
Feed pressure determines jet velocity, which,
in turn, determines the amount of oil that pene-
trates the gear mesh. Typical feed pressures
range from 1 to 7 bar. Industrial application
feed pressures are typically 1 to 2 bar, and
high-speed aerospace applications are typically
about 7 bar. In general, the higher the pressure,
the greater the cooling (Ref 22), but the higher
the pressure, the smaller the jet diameter.
Therefore, pressure is limited by the minimum
recommended jet diameter of 0.8 mm.
Jet Quantity. The number of jets should be
sufficient to provide complete lubrication cov-
erage of the face width. More than one jet for
each gear mesh is advisable because of the pos-
sibility of clogging. The upper limit on the
number of jets is determined by the flow rate
and jet diameter; too many jets for a given flow
rate will result in a jet diameter less than the
minimum recommended.
Minimized Lubrication. Improving effi-
ciency of splash-lubricated and pressure-fed
gearboxes by reducing no-load power losses
due to churning of the lubricant is gaining
interest. This is accomplished by reducing
the oil level in splash-lubricated gearboxes
and reducing the oil flow rate in pressure-
lubricated gearboxes. However, experiments
(Ref 23) show that although efficiency is
improved, gear tooth temperature is increased
leading to thinner EHL film thickness and
increased risk of gear failures due to scuffing,
macropitting, micropitting, and low-speed
adhesive wear. Therefore, to improve effi-
ciency using minimized lubrication, it is
imperative to first experimentally determine
the limits for possible reduction of lubricant
quantity that can be tolerated without detri-
mental effects on load carrying capacity.
Table 4 Recommended values of constant
c based on oil flow and gear mesh
specifications
c, kW/(L/ Flow
min) conditions Applications
40 Copious General industrial
80 Adequate Typical aviation
160 Lean Lightweight, high-efficiency
aviation
200 Starved Only for unusual conditions
894 / Friction and Wear of Machine Components

Wind Turbine Failure Modes

Figures 7–16 show examples of failure

modes that commonly occur on gears and bear-
ings in wind turbine gearboxes.
Adhesion. Figure 7 shows moderate adhe-
sion on an intermediate (INT) pinion from a
modern wind turbine.
Abrasion. Figure 8 shows mild abrasion on a
sun pinion from an early wind turbine. The
lubricant was contaminated with fine abrasives,
which led to mild abrasion on the tips of the
pinion teeth in areas with high sliding velocity.
Polishing. Figure 9 shows severe polishing
Fig. 7 Moderate adhesion on an intermediate pinion
Fig. 11 False brinelling and fretting corrosion on
from a modern wind turbine. Source: Ref 1 outer raceway of a rolling-element bearing
on an INT pinion from an early wind turbine. from a modern wind turbine
The lubricant was a mineral oil with an aggres-
sive sulfur-phosphorus antiscuff additive. Fur-
thermore, there was no offline filter to remove
fine abrasives. The combination of aggressive
antiscuff additive and fine abrasives led to
severe polishing.
Fretting. Figure 10 shows the high-speed
(HS) pinion from a modern wind turbine. Dur-
ing parking, with the HS pinion stopped by
the brake, and the rotor buffeted by the wind,
the mating wheel rocks back and forth through
small amplitude motion. The four faint lines
in Fig. 10 are false brinelling that occurred when
the wind turbine was parked for a short time
under light winds. The three prominent red lines
are fretting corrosion that occurred when the Fig. 8 Mild abrasion on a sun pinion from an early
wind turbine was parked for an extended period wind turbine. Source: Ref 1 Fig. 12 Severe fretting corrosion on a yaw gear from a
modern wind turbine
under heavy winds. Figure 11 shows the outer
raceway of a rolling-element bearing, also from
a wind turbine, which suffered false brinelling
and fretting corrosion when the wind turbine
was parked.
Fretting corrosion can also occur when a
wind turbine is rotating. It occurs on compo-
nents such as splines or blade pitch bearings
subjected to small-amplitude, vibratory motion.
Splines are especially vulnerable to fretting cor-
rosion, because unlike gears, whose rotation
entrains lubricant between mating gear teeth,
splines have small sliding motion with essen-
tially no motion to entrain lubricant between
mating spline teeth. Blade pitch bearings are
susceptible to fretting wear if the blades remain Fig. 9 Severe polishing on an intermediate pinion Fig. 13 Electrical discharge damage (fluting) on an
at one pitch angle for too long, and the lubri- from an early wind turbine. Source: Ref 1 inner ring raceway of a wind turbine-
generator bearing
cant is not replenished by pitching of the blades
and movement of the rolling elements.
Wind-turbine yaw gears are susceptible to
fretting corrosion if the rotor is fixed in one
yaw position for an extended period under
heavy winds. Figure 12 shows the teeth of a
yaw gear with severe fretting corrosion.
Electrical Discharge Damage. Figure 13
shows an inner ring (IR) raceway of a wind tur-
bine generator bearing. Electric arcing between
the balls and IR raceway caused the periodic
pattern of damage (called “fluting”) on the IR
raceway. Vibration analysis detected high
vibration caused by the electrical discharge
damage.
Scuffing. Figure 14 shows scuffing on a wind Fig. 10 False brinelling and fretting corrosion on a
high-speed pinion from a modern wind Fig. 14 Scuffing on a wind turbine HS pinion caused
turbine HS pinion. An oil leak caused the HS turbine by oil starvation. Source: Ref 1

Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:

Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)

gearset to starve for oil and overheat, which
resulted in scuffing.
Macropitting. Figure 15 shows macropitting
on a wind turbine intermediate (INT) pinion.
An INT bearing failed and allowed the INT pin-
ion to misalign and overload one end of the
INT gear mesh, resulting in macropitting.
Micropitting. Figure 16 shows micropitting
on a wind turbine INT pinion. The gearbox
lubricant was contaminated with a high level
of water, which led to widespread micropitting
on all gears and bearings.
Axial Cracks in Wind-Turbine Bearings.
Since the mid-1990s, wind turbine gearbox
rolling-element bearings have been failing pre-
maturely after only 6 to 24 months of operation.
The failure mode consists of axial cracks in the
bearing IR. Metallurgical analysis shows that
the failure mode is associated with microstruc-
tural alterations known as white-etching-areas
(WEAs) and white-etching-cracks (WECs).
Several hypotheses proposed for possible root
causes (Ref 24) are:

Hydrogen Induced. Hydrogen in the micro-
structure is a known source of embrittle-
ment and accelerator of WECs. However,
there is clear evidence that hydrogen is
not absolutely required for WECs to occur.
Nevertheless, hydrogen from lubricants,
additives, and water continues to be pro-
posed as a root cause for WECs and axial
cracks.

Electrothermal Stress Induced. Lightning
strikes, stray currents, and lubricant self-
charging and discharging are proposed as
sources for hydrogen generation and diffu-
sion, and root causes for WECs and axial
cracks.

Stress Induced. Transient loads during oper-
ation such as wind gusts, misalignment, roll-
ing-element slip, inertia forces, braking
loads, grid engagement and disengagement,
torque reversals, and severe vibrations are
proposed as root causes for WECs and axial
cracks.
These hypotheses are highly contested, and the
root cause and mechanism of axial cracks is
currently unresolved.
Fig. 15 Macropitting on a wind turbine INT pinion
caused by misalignment of the gear mesh.
Source: Ref 1
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears and Wind-Turbine Components / 895
Gear Life versus l
Gear life as a function of specific film thick-
ness, l, in the boundary lubrication (BL)
regime, the mixed lubrication (ML) regime,
and in the elastohydrodynamic lubrication
(EHL) regime is shown in Fig. 17. Macropitting
life increases with increasing specific film
thickness, l, and other failure modes are
unlikely if l > 2, but macropitting can still
occur even with thicker EHL films, because
the EHL film is a pseudo-solid that transmits
the full Hertzian pressure. In the ML regime,
the load is shared by both the lubricant film
and asperity contacts, and other failure modes
such as micropitting, adhesion, and scuffing
become possible. One or more of these failure
modes can preempt macropitting. In the BL
regime, the load is increasingly carried by
the asperities as l decreases, and for l  0,
scuffing is likely if load and sliding velocity
are high. Consequently, gear life can be essen-
tially zero if scuffing occurs at startup of the
gearbox.
Standardized Gear Tests
FZG Test Rig. Figure 18 shows the FZG
back-to-back, or 4-square, test rig used to test
industrial gear lubricants intended to be used
for lubricating spur and helical gears. Types of
FZG tests are:

FZG A gearset is a scuffing test that uses
“A” tooth profiles designed to have high
sliding velocity to promote scuffing. The
scuffing test protocol is specified in ASTM
D5182 (Ref 25).

FZG PT-C is a macropitting test that uses
“C” tooth profiles designed to have balanced
sliding velocity at each end of the path of
contact to suppress scuffing. Furthermore,
PT-C gears have a tooth surface roughness
of Ra = 0.3 mm to suppress micropitting.
The macropitting test protocol is specified
in FVA 2/IV (Ref 26).

FZG GF-C is a micropitting test that uses
“C” tooth profiles. The gears are the same
Fig. 16 Micropitting on a wind turbine INT pinion.
The lubricant was contaminated with a high
level of water, which led to widespread micropitting.
Source: Ref 1
as PT-C gears except they have a tooth sur-
face roughness of Ra = 0.5 mm to promote
micropitting. The micropitting test protocol
is specified in FVA 54/I-IV (Ref 27)
FZG Slow Speed Wear Test. The DGMK
377 (Ref 28) slow speed wear test determines
the wear characteristics of gear lubricants
under boundary and mixed lubrication. It uses
PT-C test gears and a modified FZG test rig,
which includes an additional gearbox to
reduce the speed of the FZG test rig. Part 1
of the test runs at 0.05 m/s and 90  C (0.16
ft/s and 195  F) for 40 h. Part 2 of the test runs
at 0.05 m/s and 120  C (250  F) for 40 h, and
an optional Part 3 of the test runs at 0.57 m/s
(1.87 ft/s) for an additional 40 h. After each
test run, the weight loss of the pinion and
wheel are recorded.
CRC L-37 and L-42 Tests for Hypoid Gear
Lubricants. Hypoid gear lubricants containing
higher levels of antiscuff additives, such as
those meeting the requirements of API GL-4
and GL-5, generally exceed the maximum load
capacity of the FZG test rig. Therefore, hypoid
gear lubricants are tested in full-scale axle tests.
The CRC L-37 (ASTM D6161) (Ref 29) test is
a low-speed, high-torque test designed to simu-
late a vehicle pulling a heavy load such as a
trailer. The run-in phase consists of a high-
speed/low-torque test for 100 minutes at
440 rpm wheel speed. Next, the low-speed/
high-torque test operates for 24 h at 80 rpm
wheel speed with a load that is near the bending
stress limit. The primary failure mode is ridging,
or scuffing. The CRC L-42 (ASTM D7452)
(Ref 30) test is a high-speed shock load test
designed to simulate hard acceleration and
deceleration in muscle cars (full throttle and
quick back-off). The primary failure mode is
scuffing. The test is carried out in a “T” dynam-
ometer with a 5.7 L V8 engine and 4-speed
manual transmission. The run-in phase equates
BL ML EHL
Gear
life
Macropitting
Micropitting
adhesion
scuffing
Specific film thickness, λ
Fig. 17 Gear life as a function of specific film
thickness (l) in the boundary lubrication (BL)
regime, the mixed lubrication (ML) regime, and in the
elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) regime
896 / Friction and Wear of Machine Components
7 tion-free process. The hardness of nitrided
2 Consequently, a single impact load can initiate
1 by fatigue by subsequent cyclic loading. Further-
8 5
1 Pinion
2 Gear wheel
3 Drive gears
4 Load clutch
ta for FZG test gears
Data
Item
Center distance
Number of pinion teeth
Number of gear teeth
Normal module
Normal pressure angle
Helix angle
Face width
Pinion profile shift coefficient
Gear profile shift coefficient
Pinion tip diameter
Gear tip diameter
Material alloy
Heat treatment
Flank surface roughness
Fig. 18 Schematic of an FZG test rig
to a vehicle accelerating from 40 to 50 mph (64
to 80 kph) up to 100 mph (160 kph) and decel-
erating. The test phase acceleration-decelera-
tion sequence is carried out over a more
narrow speed range.
Gear Steels and Heat Treatment
Among the various heat treated gear condi-
tions, carburized gears have the maximum load
capacity. Therefore, if the gear application
requires minimum size or minimum-weight
gears, a carburized gear is the logical choice.
The high load capacity of carburized gears is
attributed to high surface hardness, beneficial
compressive-residual stresses developed within
the hardened case, and the toughness provided
by the ductile core. However, the carburizing
process requires strict quality procedures to
obtain optimum results. One disadvantage of
carburizing is that it generally causes
quenching. Therefore, it is essentially a distor-
low-alloy steels such as AISI 4140 and AISI
3 4340 is about 500 HV, whereas the hardness
of nitrided 2.5% Cr alloy steels and special
nitriding alloys is about 700 HV. Consequently,
nitrided gears are especially adhesion and abra-
sion resistant. This gives nitrided gears about a
50% greater scuffing load capacity than carbur-
ized and induction-hardened gears. However, a
significant disadvantage of nitrided gears is that
they are sensitive to shock loads because a sub-
surface layer of iron nitrides are easily cracked.
an undetectable subsurface crack that can grow
more, nitride case depth is typically only 0.3 to
4 6 0.6 mm (0.012 to 0.024 in.) deep, which makes
nitrided gears vulnerable to subcase fatigue.
5 Locking pin Through-hardened gears are limited to a
6 Lever arm with weight pieces machinable hardness typically ranging from
180 to 400 HB. Consequently, they have less
7 Torque measuring clutch
load capacity than carburized, induction-hard-
8 Temperature sensor ened, and nitrided gears, and must be made
larger to obtain similar load capacity. A princi-
pal advantage is that they are easier to manu-
Symbol Unit FZG A FZG PT-C FZG GF-C facture and are heat treated before machining,
eliminating distortion associated with heat
a mm 91.5 91.5 91.5
z1 ... 16 16 16 treatment after machining. Macropitting is the
z2 ... 24 24 24 primary failure mode for the relatively low sur-
mn mm 4.5 4.5 4.5 face hardness of through-hardened gears.
αn deg 20 20 20
β deg 0 0 0
AGMA 923 (Ref 31) provides the metallurgi-
b mm 20 14 14 cal requirements for the material quality grades
x1 ... 0.8532 0.1817 0.1817 and ANSI/AGMA 2101 (Ref 32) provides
x2 ... –0.5103 0.1715 0.1715 allowable stresses for gear materials (Table 5).
da1 mm 88.8 82.46 82.46
da2 mm 112.5 118.36 118.36
... ...
... ...
20MnCr5 16MnCr5
Carburized
16MnCr5 Surface Roughness and Topography
Ra µm 0.5 ± 0.2 0.3 ± 0.1 0.5 ± 0.1
Surface roughness and topography has been
studied by tribologists since the 1970s. Early
studies were based on 2-D stochastic models
using a few statistical parameters to describe
the rough surface characteristics, such as aver-
age roughness Ra, root-mean-square roughness
significant distortion, which requires grinding Rq, and average maximum peak-to-valley
of the gear teeth to restore high accuracy. roughness Rz. Advancements in computer tech-
Induction-hardened gears have lower sur- nology led to the development of 3-D determin-
face hardness and less load capacity than car- istic models since the 1990s (Ref 33). The
burized gears. Induction hardening is often models use digitized real-surface topography
used for large gears that are too large for fur- to study entire lubrication regimes from bound-
nace carburizing. Distortion due to induction ary lubrication, to mixed EHL, to full EHL.
hardening is generally much less than that Zhu (Ref 33) reports typical results from deter-
associated with carburizing, because only the ministic analyses for five example surfaces
case is heated while the core remains cold. (Table 6). The results are for a heavily loaded
Large gears are usually heat treated using the EHL line contact in which the maximum Hert-
tooth-to-tooth induction hardening process. zian pressure is 2.9 GPa (420 ksi) and the central
Generally, induction-hardened gears are not film thickness of the smooth surface solution is
as reliable as carburized gears because there about 0.1 mm. In each case, two machined sur-
are many more parameters that are difficult faces of the same finishing method were run at a
to control. Therefore, it is prudent to section large slide-to-roll ratio of 114.3%. The contact
some prototype gears to verify that the induc- load ratio, Wc, is the load supported by asperity
tion hardening process produces the required contacts divided by the total load. A Wc = 100%
metallurgical properties. represents dry contact without any hydrodynamic
Nitriding produces a hard surface with bene- lubrication, and Wc = 0 represents full EHL with
ficial compressive-residual stresses. It is done at no asperity contacts. The range 0 < Wc < 51%
low temperature, and does not require indicates operation in the mixed EHL regime
Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:
Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
 Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears and Wind-Turbine Components / 897

Table 5 Allowable stresses for steel gears Table 6 Effect of surface finishing method on mixed EHL characteristics
from ANSI/AGMA 2101-D04 Surface
finishing Composite surface Specific film Contact load Coefficient of von Mises stress Relative
Hertzian
method roughness (s) thickness (l) ratio (Wc), % friction, m (sv), GPa, max Hertzian life, %
stress limit Bending stress limit
Grade Hardness (sHP), MPa (sFP), MPa Shaved 1.30 0.08 51 0.079 4.70 5
Carburized and hardened Ground 0.94 0.11 41 0.069 4.40 12
Honed 0.51 0.20 28 0.058 2.82 49
3 58–64 HRC 1895 515 Polished 0.40 0.25 15 0.050 2.61 65
2 58–64 HRC 1550 450 or 485(a) Smooth 0.00 1 0 0.040 0.59 100
1 55–64 HRC 1240 380
Source: Ref 33
Induction hardened
2 50 HRC 1310 380(b)
2 54 HRC 1345 150(c)
1 50 HRC 1170 310(b) ideal superfinished surface has no asperity Surface-Hardened Gears,” Paper No. 80-
1 54 HRC 1205 150(c) peaks and a nondirectional surface texture. It C2/DET-89, Amer. Soc. of Mech. Engrs.,
Nitrided, through-hardened is produced using chemically accelerated vibra- 1980, p 1–7
tory finishing, which imparts a smooth surface 4. R.L. Errichello and J. Muller, Oil Cleanli-
3 83.5 HR15N 1205 ...
2 83.5 HR15N 1125 0.749 HB + 110(d) with Ra <0.1 mm and an isotropic surface tex- ness in Wind Turbine Gearboxes, Machin-
1 83.5 HR15N 1035 0.568 HB + 83.8(d) ture. While an absolutely smooth mirror-like ery Lubrication, Vol 2, (No. 4), Jul/Aug
3 84.5 HR15N 1240 ... finish without scratches of any kind is the opti- 2002, p 34–40
2 84.5 HR15N 1160 0.749 HB + 110(d) mum surface for preventing micropitting, such 5. A. Milburn, R. Errichello, and D. Godfrey,
1 84.5 HR15N 1070 0.568 HB + 83.8(d)
a surface does not have optimum scuffing resis- “Polishing Wear,” Paper No. 90FTM5,
Nitrided alloy 2.5% Cr tance. Experience shows that the optimum sur- AGMA, 1990, p 1–13
3 87.5 HR15N 1305 0.7255 HB + 201.91(d) face finish for both micropitting resistance and 6. J.H. Adams and D. Godfrey, Borate Gear
2 87.5 HR15N 1185 0.7255 HB + 153.63(d) scuffing resistance is a smooth surface without Lubricant-EP Film Analysis and Perfor-
1 87.5 HR15N 1070 0.7255 HB + 63.98(d)
3 90.0 HR15N 1490 0.7255 HB + 201.91(d) directionality that has slight dings and scratches mance, Lubr. Eng., Vol 37 (No. 1), Jan
2 90.0 HR15N 1350 0.7255 HB + 153.63(d) as produced by isotropic superfinishing. Fur- 1981, p 16–21
1 90.0 HR15N 1215 0.7255 HB + 63.98(d) thermore, superfinished gears have significantly 7. H. Blok, Les Temperatures de Surface dans
Nitralloy 135M reduced friction, temperature, and wear. For les Conditions de Graissage sons Pression
3 90.0 HR15N 1345 ... these reasons, some high-performance applica- Extreme, Second World Petrol. Congr.
2 90.0 HR15N 1260 0.7848 HB + 114.81(d) tions such as aerospace, racing, and wind-tur- (Paris), June 1937, p 151–182
1 90.0 HR15N 1170 0.594 HB + 87.76(d) bine gearboxes use superfinishing to improve 8. H. Blok, The Postulate about the Con-
Nitralloy N performance. stancy of Scoring Temperatures, Interdisci-
3 90.0 HR15N 1415 ... plinary Approach to the Lubrication of
2 90.0 HR15N 1300 0.7848 HB + 114.81(d) Nomenclature Concentrated Contacts, SP-237, National
1 90.0 HR15N 1185 0.594 HB + 87.76(d) Aeronautics and Space Administration,
Through-hardened 1970, p 153–248
Table 7 lists the parameters and units required 9. W.E. Littman, The Mechanism of Contact
2 180–400 HB 2.41 HB + 0.703 HB + 113(f) to calculate Eq 1 to 27 in this article.
237(e) Fatigue, Interdisciplinary Approach to the
1 180–400 HB 2.22 HB + 0.533 HB + 88.3(f) Lubrication of Concentrated Contacts, SP-
200(e) 237, National Aeronautics and Space
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(a) Use 485 MPa (70.3 ksi) if bainite and microcracks are limited to Administration, 1970, p 309–377
Grade 3 levels. (b) For type A hardness pattern (flanks and roots hard- This article is revised from R. Errichello,
ened); see Fig. 12 in standard for hardness patterns. (c) For type B hard-
10. R.L. Errichello, et al., “Point-Surface-Ori-
ness pattern (only flanks hardened); see Fig. 12 in standard for hardness Friction, Lubrication, and Wear of Gears, Fric- gin, PSO, Macropitting Caused by Geomet-
patterns. (d) HB pertains to core harness; see Figs. 10 and 11 in stan- tion, Lubrication, and Wear Technology, Vol ric Stress Concentration, GSC,” Paper No.
dard for core-hardness range for each nitriding alloy. (e) HB pertains
to surface hardness at the SAP in the center of the face width. (f) HB 18, ASM Handbook, ASM International, 1992, 10FTM11, American Gear Manufacturers
pertains to surface hardness at the root diameter in the center of the p 535–545. Assoc., 2010, p 1–11
tooth space and face width. Source: Ref 32
11. T. Ueno, et al., “Surface Durability of
REFERENCES Case-Carburized Gears—On a Phenome-
non of Grey Staining of Tooth Surface,”
where the load is shared between the EHL film 1. “Appearance of Gear Teeth- Terminology Paper No. 80-C2/DET-27, Amer. Soc. of
and the asperity contacts. Table 6 shows that sur- of Wear and Failure,” ANSI/AGMA Mech. Engrs., 1980, p 1–8
face roughness and topography significantly 1010-F14, American Gear Manufacturers 12. R.L. Errichello, “Morphology of Micropit-
influence the EHL characteristics. Assoc., 2014. Printed with permission of ting,” Paper No. 11FTM17, American Gear
the copyright holder, the American Manufacturers Assoc., 2011, p 1–19
Gear Manufacturers Association, 1001 N. 13. S. Tanaka, et al., “Appreciable Increases in
Superfinishing Fairfax Street, 5th Floor, Alexandria, Vir- Surface Durability of Gear Pairs with Mir-
ginia 22314. Statements presented in this ror-Like Finish,” Paper No. 84-DET-223,
Gear teeth fabricated using typical paper are those of the Authors and may Amer. Soc. of Mech. Engrs., 1984, p 1–8
manufacturing processes such as hobbing, shap- not represent the position or opinion of 14. C. Benyajati and A.V. Olver, “The Effect of
ing, shaving, grinding, and honing have sur- the American Gear Manufacturers a ZnDTP Antiwear Additive on the Micropit-
faces that are relatively rough and have Association ting Resistance of Carburized Steel Rollers,”
directionally oriented surface lay. The rough- 2. “Effect of Lubrication on Gear Surface Paper No. 04FTM6, American Gear Manu-
ness and directionality of tooth surfaces tend Distress,” AGMA 925-A03, American facturers Assoc., 2004, p 1–8
to make them susceptible to micropitting and Gear Manufacturers Assoc., 2003 15. P.K. Gupta, H.S. Cheng, et al., Viscoelastic
scuffing. Superfinishing is a supplementary fin- 3. H. Winter and T. Weiss, “Some Factors Effects in Mil-L-7808-Type Lubricant, Part
ishing process capable of producing a very Influencing the Pitting, Micropitting I: Analytical Formulation, Tribol. Trans.,
smooth mirror-like finish on gear teeth. The (Frosted Areas) and Slow Speed Wear of Vol 5 (No.2), 1992, p 269–274

Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:

Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)
898 / Friction and Wear of Machine Components

Table 7 Nomenclature used in friction and 16. P.E. Wolveridge, K.P. Baglin, and J.F. Arch- 27. “Test Procedure for the Investigation of the
wear of gears ard, The Starved Lubrication of Cylinders in Micropitting Capacity of Gear Lubricants,”
Line Contact, Proc. Inst. Mech. Engrs., Vol FVA Information Sheet No. 54/I-IV, July
Symbol Description Units 185 (No. 81), 1971, p 1159–1169 1993
BM1 Thermal contact coefficient of N/(mm s0.5 K) 17. “Industrial Gear Lubrication,” ANSI/ 28. “Method to Assess the Wear Characteristics
pinion AGMA 9005-F16, American Gear Manu- of Lubricants in the FZG Gear Test Rig,”
BM2 Thermal contact coefficient of N/(mm s0.5 K) facturers Assoc., 2016 Deutsche Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft
wheel
bH Semiwidth of Hertzian contact mm 18. M. Akazawa, T. Tejima, and T. Narita, für Erdöl, Erdgas und Kohle e.V., DGMK
band “Full Scale Test of High Speed, High Pow- Information Sheet No. 377, 1996
c Constant (see Table 4) kW/(L/min) ered Gear Unit—Helical Gears of 25,000 29. Standard Test Method for Evaluation of
d Operating pitch diameter of mm PS at 200 m/s PLV,” Paper No. 80-C2/ Load-Carrying Capacity of Lubricants
pinion
E1 Modulus of elasticity of pinion N/mm2 DET-4, Amer. Soc. of Mech. Engrs., 1980 Under Conditions of Low Speed and High
E2 Modulus of elasticity of wheel N/mm2 19. “Specification for High Speed Helical Gear Torque Used for Final Hypoid Drive Axles,
Er Reduced modulus of elasticity N/mm2 Units,” ANSI/AGMA 6011-J14, American ASTM D6121, Book of Standards, Vol
Fwn Normal operating load N Gear Manufacturers Assoc., 2014 05.02, ASTM 2016
G Materials parameter ...
Hc Dimensionless central film ... 20. “Standard for Design and Specification of 30. Standard Test Method for Evaluation of the
thickness Gearboxes for Wind Turbines,” ANSI/ Load Carrying Properties of Lubricants
hc Central film thickness mm AGMA/AWEA 6006-A03, American Gear Used for Final Drive Axles, Under Condi-
hmin Minimum film thickness mm Manufacturers Assoc., 2003 tions of High Speed and Shock Loading,
K Flash temperature constant ...
Ko Overload factor ... 21. R.J. Drago, Fundamentals of Gear Design, ASTM D7452, Book of Standards, Vol
KH Load distribution factor ... Butterworths, 1988 05.04, ASTM 2016
KV Dynamic factor ... 22. L. Akin and D. Townsend, “Study of 31. “Metallurgical Specifications for Steel
Lmin Minimum contact length mm Lubricant Jet Flow Phenomena in Spur Gearing,” AGMA 923-B05, American
Lx Filter cutoff of wavelength x mm
n Pinion speed rev/min Gears,” TMX-71572, National Aeronautics Gear Manufacturers Assoc., 2005
P Transmitted power kW and Space Administration, Oct 1974 32. “Fundamental Rating Factors and Calcula-
q Oil flow rate L/min 23. B.R. Hohn, K. Michaelis, and H.P. Otto, tion Methods for Involute Spur and Helical
Ra1 Average surface roughness of mm Flank Load Carrying Capacity and Power Gear Teeth,” ANSI/AGMA 2101-D04,
pinion
Ra2 Average surface roughness of mm Loss Reduction by Minimized Lubrication, American Gear Manufacturers Assoc., 2004
wheel Gear Technol., May 2011, p 53–62 33. D. Zhu, Deterministic Models of Rough
U Speed parameter ... 24. M.H. Evans, An Updated Review: White Surface EHL, Encyclopedia of Tribology,
V Operating pitch line velocity m/s Etching Cracks (WECs) and Axial Cracks Vol 2, Springer, 2013, p 727–736
Ve Entraining velocity m/s
Vr1 Rolling velocity of pinion m/s in Wind Turbine Gearbox Bearings, Matls.
Vr2 Rolling velocity of wheel m/s Sci. and Technol., 2016, p 1–37
Vs1 Sliding velocity of pinion m/s 25. Standard Test Method for Evaluating the SELECTED REFERENCES
Vs2 Sliding velocity of wheel m/s Scuffing Load Capacity of Oils (FZG
W Load parameter ...

J. Shigley, C. Mischke, and R. Budynas,
Wn Normal unit load N/mm Visual Method), ASTM D5182, Book of
XW Welding factor ... Standards, Vol 05.02, ASTM 2014 Mechanical Engineering Design, 7th ed.,
XG Load sharing factor ... 26. “Influence of Lubricant on the Pitting Capac- McGraw-Hill, 2003
a Pressure-viscosity coefficient mm2/N ity of Case Carburized Gears in Load-Spec-
P.R.N. Childs, Mechanical Design Engi-
bb Base helix angle degrees
ZM Dynamic viscosity at gear tooth mPa s tra and Single-Stage-Investigations,” FVA neering Handbook, 1st ed., Elsevier Butter-
temperature Information Sheet No. 2/IV, July 1997 worth-Heinemann, 2013

yB Contact temperature C

yB max Maximum contact temperature C

yfl Flash temperature C

yfl, test Maximum flash temperature of test C
gears

yM Bulk tooth temperature C

yM, test Tooth temperature of test gears C

yS Mean scuffing temperature C
l Specific film thickness ...
lmin Minimum specific film thickness ...
mm Mean coefficient of friction ...
ml min Mean minimum specific film ...
thickness
v1 Poisson’s ratio of pinion ...
v2 Poisson’s ratio of wheel ...
v40 Kinematic viscosity at 40  C mm2/s
(105  F)
r1 Transverse radius of curvature of mm
pinion
r2 Transverse radius of curvature of mm
wheel
rn Normal relative radius of mm
curvature
sx Composite surface roughness for mm
filter cutoff wavelength

syS Std. dev. of mean scuffing C
temperature
sl min Std. dev. of mean minimum . . .
specific film thickness
o1 Angular velocity of pinion rad/s
o2 Angular velocity of wheel rad/s

Copyrighted content, licensed for the sole use of:

Robert Errichello, Geartech Software (020422)