Tribology Transactions

ISSN: 1040-2004 (Print) 1547-397X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/utrb20

A Mixed TEHL Model for the Prediction of Thermal

Effect on Lubrication Performance in Spiral Bevel
Gears

Daofei Wang, Si Ren, Ying Zhang & Wei Pu

To cite this article: Daofei Wang, Si Ren, Ying Zhang & Wei Pu (2019): A Mixed TEHL Model
for the Prediction of Thermal Effect on Lubrication Performance in Spiral Bevel Gears, Tribology
Transactions, DOI: 10.1080/10402004.2019.1688442

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10402004.2019.1688442

Accepted author version posted online: 04

Nov 2019.

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 A Mixed TEHL Model for the Prediction of Thermal Effect on Lubrication
Performance in Spiral Bevel Gears

1,* 1,* 2,* 1,#

Daofei Wang , Si Ren , Ying Zhang , Wei Pu
1
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
2
School of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065,
China
*
These authors contributed equally to this work.
#
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Wei Pu
(Pwei@scu.edu.cn)
Abstract

t
ip
Arbitrary velocity vectors on two meshing surfaces in spiral bevel gears could

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generate large sliding velocity, which may cause tremendous temperature rise
especially when surface roughness is involved. However, available studies are

us
primarily concentrated on full-film lubrication without considering temperature rise
and surface topography. The purpose of present study is to develop a mixed thermal
an
elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) model taking into account the velocity vector
M

and surface roughness. The obtained results are compared with those from
elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model and measurement in previous literatures
ed

to demonstrate the accuracy of the present model. Further, the TEHL model has been
applied to predict the film thickness, pressure and temperature rise of the spiral bevel
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gears over one meshing period by considering the thermal effect.

Keywords: EHL; TEHL; Thermal Effect; Spiral Bevel Gears
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1 Introduction
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Spiral bevel gears have many advantages, such as transmission stability, large
carrying capacity, and space transmission capacity. They are widely used in
heavy-duty trucks, construction machinery and aircraft engines. The characteristic of
velocity vector on meshing tooth surface in spiral bevel gear is very different from
that of ordinary cylindrical gears and bearings. The velocity vectors of two surfaces
commonly do not coincide with the main axes of the Hertz contact zone, which may
lead to a great sliding speed. Scuffing is a major failure mode for spiral bevel gears
subjected to severe heat generation, except for the ordinary failure forms like contact
fatigue and wear. Therefore, it is of significant importance to study thermal effect on
lubrication performance and film breakdown in spiral bevel gears.
Over the years, scholars have made great progress in the field of lubrication
model for ordinary cylindrical gears and bearings. Before the 1960s, most of the
previous EHL models were based on isothermal conditions. After that, many scholars
attempted to consider the thermal effect factor in EHL model, in order to better
describe the temperature rise distribution in contact zone. Dowson (1) and Cheng (2, 3)
were the first scholars to take into account thermal influence when solving Reynolds

t
ip
equation. Follow-up scholars had conducted extensive research around TEHL issues,
such as Guo et al. (4), Kim et al. (5), Yang et al. (6), Liu et al. (7), and Habchi et al.

cr
(8). It should be noted that these studies were mainly focused on full-film lubrication

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with smooth surface. In engineering practices, the machined surfaces of components
are quite rough, and different surface roughness could result in different responses to
an
lubrication performance. Chang et al. (9), Ai et al. (10), Zhu et al. (11)- (13), and
Zhang et al. (14) made a great contribution for the mixed EHL or TEHL model
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associated with rough surface. Most recently, Wang and Zhu (15) developed a unified
TEHL model with real machined roughness that could simulate all lubrication states
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from full-film and mixed lubrication to boundary condition.

Based on the achievements in the lubrication model for ordinary cylindrical
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gears and bearings, the lubrication problem with arbitrary velocity vector found in
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spiral bevel gears has aroused more attention in recent years. Simon (16) investigated
the effect of position errors on the lubrication performance in spiral bevel gears.
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Mohammadpour (17)-(19) published many papers that studied the lubrication

characteristics in spiral bevel gears. Pu and Zhu (20), Cao and Pu (21) investigated the
lubrication performance in spiral bevel gears according to a recently developed mixed
EHL model which considered the effect of entrainment speed angle and machined
surface roughness. But the lubrication model did not take into account the thermal
effect. Foord et al. (22) employed a sliding test bench to measure film thickness
distribution with the situation of different velocity directions. The experimental
interferogram shows the asymmetry of the oil film thickness caused by sliding. After
that, Wang et al. (23), Karsten et al. (24) and B.-R. Hoehn et al. (25) made
contributions to the lubrication problem with arbitrary velocity vector through
ball-on-disc experiment. Most recently, Omasta et al. (26) made an experimental
study adopting thin-film colorimetric interferometry to investigate the lubrication
problem with arbitrary velocity vectors. In that study, a conclusion can be obtained
that, although the entrainment speeds are the same, the film thickness distributions
appear to be considerably different subjected to sliding velocity. The heat generated
by sliding speed remarkably reduces the viscosity of lubricate and significantly affects

t
ip
the formation of oil film. Unfortunately, traditional isothermal EHL models cannot
deal with this problem.

cr
Due to the complicated geometry and rough surface, the researches on

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lubrication problem for spiral bevel gears are still limited. The thermal influence on
lubrication performance is imminently needed for further study since the scuffing is
an
the major failure mode for spiral bevel gears in most operating conditions. The
present study aims to develop a mixed TEHL model taking into account the arbitrary
M

velocity vector and surface roughness, and further investigate the thermal effect on
lubrication performance in spiral bevel gears. This paper reports the development of
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the mixed TEHL model, the comparison with measured data from literatures, and the
systematical analysis of thermal influence on lubrication performance.
pt
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2 Basic Equations
Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of meshing pair in spiral bevel gears. The
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tooth surface of spiral bevel gear is a complex space surface. In the meshing
transmission, the meshing area of teeth is an ellipse instead of a circle or line. ⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝑢1 is

the velocity vector of pinion tooth, ⃗⃗⃗⃗

𝑢2 is the velocity vector of gear tooth, the angle

between ⃗⃗⃗⃗ 𝑢2 is ϵ. There are an angle 𝜃 between the entrainment speed

𝑢1 and ⃗⃗⃗⃗

[𝑢
⃗⃗⃗⃗e = (𝑢 𝑢2 )/2] and the minor axis of the contact ellipse, and an angle 𝜃s between
⃗⃗⃗⃗1 + ⃗⃗⃗⃗

the sliding velocity (𝑢

⃗⃗⃗⃗s = ⃗⃗⃗⃗ 𝑢2 ) and the minor axis.
𝑢1 − ⃗⃗⃗⃗
 

Pinion
y

S 𝜖

-a 
x

Gear Hertzian Ellipse

-b

t
ip
cr
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of meshing

Referring to the model established by Greenwood (27) and Liu (28), the
Reynolds equation for spiral bevel gears can be written as follow:
∂ 𝜕𝑝
(𝜑𝑋 ) +
∂ 𝜕𝑝
(𝜑𝑌 ) = |𝑢
⃗⃗⃗⃗e | cos 𝜃
𝜕(𝜌𝑢∗ ℎ)
+ |𝑢
us
⃗⃗⃗⃗e | sin 𝜃
𝜕(𝜌𝑣∗ ℎ) 𝜕(𝜌𝑒 ℎ)
+ (1)
an
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑡
with
M

ℎ ℎ
+
1 2 𝜕(𝜌𝑢) 1 +2 𝜕(𝜌𝑣)
𝜑𝑋 = 𝜕𝑝
∫ 𝑧 𝜌𝑑𝑧, 𝜑𝑌 = 𝜕𝑝 ∫ 𝑧 𝜌𝑑𝑧,
−2
ℎ 𝜕𝑧 −
ℎ 𝜕𝑧
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 2
ℎ
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+ (2)
𝜌1 𝑢1 + 𝜌2 𝑢2 1 2 𝜌1 𝑣1 + 𝜌2 𝑣2
𝜌𝑢∗ = , 𝜌𝑒 = ∫ 𝜌𝑑𝑧, 𝜌𝑣∗ = ,
𝑢1 + 𝑢2 ℎ − ℎ 𝑣1 + 𝑣2
2
𝑢1 + 𝑢2 𝑣1 + 𝑣2
{𝑢 = ,𝑣 = .
pt

2 2
where 𝑢1 and 𝑣1 are the components of ⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝑢1 in x and y directions, 𝑢2 and 𝑣2 are
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𝑢2 in x and y directions, respectively, 𝜑𝑋 and 𝜑𝑌 are flow

the components of ⃗⃗⃗⃗
factors, 𝜌𝑢∗ , 𝜌𝑒 and 𝜌𝑣∗ are three reduced densities. Detailed equation description
Ac

can be found in Ref (28).

In spiral bevel gears, the film thickness (or gap) between the two interacting
tooth surfaces is a function of contact geometry, machined surface topography and
contact deformation, which is time-dependent. In present study, a series of discrete
meshing points on tooth surface are selected to analyze the lubrication performance.
For each meshing point, the contact geometry is constant and does not change with
time. Therefore, the film thickness (or gap) equation can be described as follow:
𝑥2 𝑦2
ℎ = ℎ0 (𝑡) + + + 𝛿1 (𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) + 𝛿2 (𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) + 𝑉(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) (3)
2𝑅𝑥 2𝑅𝑦
In the above formula, ℎ0 (𝑡) is caused by the normal approach of the two
𝑥2 𝑦2
surfaces. 2𝑅𝑥
and 2𝑅𝑦
are the contact geometry of two interacting objects,

respectively. 𝛿1 (𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) and 𝛿2 (𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) represent the roughness amplitudes of the two
contact surfaces. Since the rough surfaces move along the x-direction and y-direction,
the rough terms 𝛿1 and 𝛿2 are defined as functions of time, and the specific
expression relationship can be expressed as follows:
𝛿 (𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) = 𝑠1 (𝑥 − 𝑢1 𝑡, 𝑦 − 𝑣1 𝑡)

t
{ 1 (4)

ip
𝛿2 (𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) = 𝑠2 (𝑥 − 𝑢2 𝑡, 𝑦 − 𝑣2 𝑡)

In Eq. (4), 𝑠1 and 𝑠2 are original rough surface profiles. The surface elastic

cr
deformation 𝑉(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) is caused by the pressure in the contact zone and can be
calculated using the Boussinesq integral formula

𝑉(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) =
2
∬
𝑝(𝜉, 𝜍, 𝑡) us
𝑑𝜉𝑑𝜍 (5)
an
𝜋𝐸′ Ω √(𝑥 − 𝜉)2 + (𝑦 − 𝜍)2

Lubricating oil viscosity is related to pressure and temperature. In this paper,

M

Roeland’s viscosity-pressure-temperature relationship is employed as follows:

𝑇 − 138 −𝑆
𝜂 = 𝜂0 exp {(ln 𝜂0 + 9.67) [−1 + (1 + 5.1 × 10−9 𝑝)𝑍 ( ) ]} (6)
ed

𝑇0 − 138
where
𝛼
pt

𝑍= , (7)
[5.1 × 10−9 (ln 𝜂0 + 9.67)]
ce

and

𝑆 = 𝛽(𝑇0 − 138)/(ln 𝜂0 + 9.67). (8)

Ac

In the above equations, α is the pressure-viscosity coefficient, β is the

temperature-viscosity coefficient.
The density of the lubricant is also a function of pressure and temperature. The
expression is as follows:
0.6 × 10−9 𝑝
𝜌 = 𝜌0 [1 + − 0.00065(𝑇 − 𝑇0 )] (9)
1 + 1.7 × 10−9 𝑝
The energy equation (see Ref (29)) for calculating the three-dimensional
temperature can be written as follows:
 𝜕𝑇 𝜕𝑇 𝜕𝑇 𝜕𝑇 𝜕 2 𝑇 𝑇 𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝜌 𝜂 𝜕𝑢 2 𝜕𝑣 2
𝑐𝑓 𝜌 ( + 𝑢 +𝑣 + 𝑤 ) = 𝑘𝑓 2 − (𝑢 +𝑣 )+ [( ) + ( ) ] (10)
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧 𝜕𝑧 𝜌 𝜕𝑇 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝑓(𝜏̅𝑒 ) 𝜕𝑧 𝜕𝑧

In the above formula, the left term is the convection term, the first term on the
right side is the heat conduction term, the second term is the extrusion term, and the
third term is the viscous shear heat term, 𝑐𝑓 is the specific heat of the lubricant, 𝑘𝑓 is
lubricant heat transfer coefficient, and 𝑓(𝜏̅𝑒 ) represents the lubricant property and
equation expressed as follows (see Ref (28) for a detailed explanation):
𝑓(𝜏̅𝑒 ) = 1, Newtonian
{ 1−𝑛 (11)
𝑓(𝜏̅𝑒 ) = [1 + 𝜏̅𝑒 2 ]2𝑛
, Carreau

For the temperature distribution of the solid-liquid boundary, the temperatures T1

t
ip
and T2 of the two contact surfaces are determined by the surface temperature rise

cr
equation (given by Liu et al. in Ref (30)) of the lubricating oil and the boundary
condition of the lubricating oil energy equation

𝑇1 = 𝑇1𝑏 + ∫ ∬
0
𝑡

𝑡
Ω
𝑞1 𝑑𝑥′𝑑𝑦′𝑑𝑡′
4𝜌𝑠 𝑐𝑠 [𝜋𝛼𝑠 (𝑡 − 𝑡 ′ )]3/2
𝑞2 𝑑𝑥′𝑑𝑦′𝑑𝑡′
× exp {−
us
[(𝑥 − 𝑥 ′ ) − 𝑢1 (𝑡 − 𝑡 ′ )]2 + (𝑦 − 𝑦 ′ )2
4𝛼𝑠 (𝑡 − 𝑡 ′ )
[(𝑥 − 𝑥 ′ ) − 𝑢2 (𝑡 − 𝑡 ′ )]2 + (𝑦 − 𝑦 ′ )2
}
(12)
an
𝑇2 = 𝑇2𝑏 + ∫ ∬ × exp {− }
Ω 4𝜌𝑠 𝑐𝑠 [𝜋𝛼𝑠 (𝑡 − 𝑡 )] 4𝛼𝑠 (𝑡 − 𝑡 ′ )
′ 3/2
{ 0

As the surface roughness is involved, the film thickness in some areas may be
M

zero. In the full-film lubrication region (ℎ > 0) and the contact region (ℎ = 0), the
heat fluxes are different. The expressions of the heat fluxes 𝑞1 and 𝑞2 on both
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contact surfaces can be derived (31) as follows:

𝜕𝑇 𝜕𝑇
𝑞1 = −𝑘𝑓 | ℎ , 𝑞2 = 𝑘𝑓 | ℎ , for ℎ > 0
pt

{ 𝜕𝑧 𝑧=− 𝜕𝑧 𝑧= (13)
2 2
𝑞1 = 𝑓𝜇𝑝𝑢𝑠 , 𝑞2 = (1 − 𝑓)𝜇𝑝𝑢𝑠 , for ℎ = 0
ce

In the above formulae, 𝑢𝑠 is the boundary lubrication friction coefficient and 𝑓

is the heat distribution coefficient.
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The load balance equation is used to ensure that the external load W and the
contact pressure are balanced with each other. The specific expression is listed as
follows:

𝑤(𝑡) = ∬ 𝑝(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡)𝑑𝑥𝑑𝑦 (14)

Ω

3 Numerical Method
According to above equations, it can be noted that the thermal effects on
viscosity and density of lubricant are considered, whereas the temperature distribution
is affected by the sliding speed and interface pressure as well. Therefore, in this study,
the pressure distribution, film thickness and the temperature rise are calculated
through the numerical method of mutual coupling iteration until their convergence
accuracy are satisfied. The semi-system approach (13, 20) is employed to solve the
Reynolds equation in order to obtain the pressure distribution. Since the main
difficulty in calculating the film thickness is to solve the surface elastic deformation,
one of the most effective methods, DC-FFT (28), is used to deal with this problem.
Coupled by the boundary condition at each interface, the energy equation and the

t
ip
surface temperature equations are solved simultaneously, and the DC-FFT method is
also adopted to calculate the temperature rise (15).

cr
4 Model Validation

us
In order to verify the present mixed TEHL model that takes into account the
an
arbitrary velocity vector, a comparison is conducted between film thickness
distribution solved by the present model and the data measured by Milan Omasta's
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(26). The main input parameters of the mixed TEHL model are listed in Table 1. The
solution domain is defined as −2 ≤ 𝑋 ≤ 1.3 and −1.5 ≤ 𝑌 ≤ 1.5 .The
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computational grid of the solution domain is set with 257×257 equally spaced nodes,
which can ensure the solution accuracy (see in Ref (31)). Other input parameters are
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consistent with the experimental parameters provided by the literature (26). The
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results obtained by EHL model and TEHL model are shown in Table 2 and Fig. 2.
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 Table 1 Main input parameters of the mixed TEHL model
Input parameter Value
Radius of curvature in x direction (m) 0.0254
Radius of curvature in y direction (m) 0.0254
Entrainment speed (m/s) 0.12
External load (N) 77
Inlet viscosity of the lubricant (Pa∙s) 0.32
3
Inlet density of the lubricant (Kg/m ) 846
Inlet temperature of the lubricant (K) 295
-1
Pressure-viscosity coefficient (GPa ) 31
-1
Temperature-viscosity coefficient (K ) 0.042
-1
Thermal expansivity of the lubricant (K ) 0.00064
Thermal conductivity of the lubricant (W/m∙K) 0.14

t
ip
Specific heat of the lubricant (J/kg∙K) 2000
Thermal conductivity of the solids (W/m∙K) 47

cr
Specific heat of the solids (J/kg∙K) 460
3
Density of the solids (Kg/m ) 7850

us
Effective elastic modulus (GPa) 123.6
Poisson’s ratio of the solids 0.3
Boundary lubrication friction coefficient 0.2
an
Table 2 Central film thickness comparison

𝛜 hc (nm) Source
M

392 Calculated by present model

0
395 Measured by Milan Omasta(26)
381 Calculated by present model
15
ed

380 Measured by Milan Omasta(26)

354 Calculated by present model
30
355 Measured by Milan Omasta(26)
342 Calculated by present model
pt

45
340 Measured by Milan Omasta(26)
ce
Ac
 t
ip
Fig. 2 Comparison between the experimental data and simulation results

cr
It is obvious to see that the central film thickness calculated by numerical
simulation is substantially consistent with the measured results in Ref (26) at different
surface speed angle ϵ
us
(In Fig.2 the δ is the same meaning of the ϵ ) from Table 2,
with only a few microns difference. Further, as shown in Fig. 2, the film distributions
an
obtained by simulation agree well with the measured ones. The larger the angle ϵ, the
greater the sliding velocity, a more significant temperature rise would be introduced.
M

As a result, the lubricant viscous is decreased, which leads to a worse lubrication

ed

condition with smaller film thickness. But according to the traditional EHL model, the
film distribution is only influenced by the entrainment speed, thus, obtained film
pt

thickness could not be affected with the variation of sliding speed if the entrainment
speed is constant, which is not in accordance with the experimental result. Therefore,
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the present mixed TEHL model should be employed for more reliable prediction of
the lubrication characteristics in contact zones when the thermal effect cannot be
Ac

neglected.

5 TEHL with Smooth Surface

In order to demonstrate the ability of current model to simulate the mixed TEHL
over a wide range of speed, a set of cases with different entrainment speeds ranging
from 0.001 m/s to 100 m/s are selected for TEHL numerical analysis without
considering the surface roughness. Since the slide-roll ratio is constant for all the
cases, the higher the entrainment speed, the higher the sliding speed. The angle
between the entrainment speed direction and the minor axis of the Hertzian contact
ellipse is set to be 22.5o. input parameters are given in Table 3, other input parameters
are consistent with Table 1. The solution domain and grid are kept the same with the
given ones in Section 3. The film distribution in the Hertz contact zone is determined
by using TEHL model, and compared with EHL solution under the same working
conditions, as shown in Fig. 3.
Table 3 Some input parameters of the mixed TEHL model
Input parameter Value

t
Radius of curvature in x direction (m) 0.012

ip
Radius of curvature in y direction (m) 0.012
o
Entrainment angle ( ) 22.5

cr
External load (N) 200
Inlet viscosity of the lubricant (Pa∙s) 0.09

us
-1
Pressure-viscosity coefficient (GPa ) 33.8
Inlet temperature of the lubricant (K) 313
Effective elastic modulus (GPa) 230.77
an
M
ed
pt
ce

Fig. 3 Comparison of film distribution with smooth surface

Ac

According to Fig. 3, the film thickness in the contact zone increases with the
increase of the entrainment speed both for EHL model and TEHL model. At low
speed, the film distributions from the two models indicate the contact zone is in dry
contact. As speed goes up, the film gets thicker, and the difference between the results
of the two models becomes more obvious. The film thickness based on the TEHL
model is always smaller than the EHL model solution due to the influence of the
thermal effect on the contact zone.
 Fig. 4 Temperature rise distribution in the mid-film layer with smooth surface

200
ue=0.09m/s
ue=4.62m/s
Temperature rise (℃ )

150 ue=92.38m/s

t
ip
100

cr
50

0
-2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 us
0.5 1.0
an
X/a

Fig. 5 Temperature rise in the mid-film layer along x direction for smooth surface
M

In order to investigate the difference between the film distributions obtained by

the two models, the temperature rise distributions in the mid-film layer are present in
ed

Fig. 4. At low speed, the temperature rise in the contact zone is very small. As the
entrainment speed increases, the relative sliding speed increases, resulting in
pt

generation of more viscous shear heat, and as a result, the temperature condition of
ce

the contact zone becomes more severe. Fig. 5 shows the temperature rise along x
direction at three different speeds. Note that due to the effect of heat convection, the
Ac

tail of the temperature rise curve can extend to the downstream lubrication outlet zone
at high entrainment speeds.
 4800
250
Max temperature Rise T(℃ ) hc for EHL
4000
200
hm for EHL

Film Thickness h(nm)

3200 hc for TEHL
150 hm for TEHL
2400

100
1600

50 800

0 0
1E-3 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1E-3 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Rolling Speed ue(m/s) Rolling Speed ue(m/s)

Fig. 6 Maximum temperature rise and central film thickness for smooth surface

Fig.6 shows the results of maximum temperature rise and central film thickness

t
with different entrainment speed. As shown in the figure, the temperature rise

ip
increases continuously with the growth of the speed. The maximum temperature rise

cr
even reaches 244 °C at 100 m/s while the temperature rise is small at low speed. The
results of central film thickness have also been compared between the EHL model and
the TEHL model. It can be observed that with the increase of the maximum
us
an
temperature rise, the difference between the central film thickness from the two
models becomes greater. At low speeds, the EHL model turns out to be efficient
M

enough to predict the film thickness for the small temperature rise which is negligible.
But when the temperature rise cannot be neglected at high speeds, the central film
ed

thickness obtained from the TEHL model is much smaller than the ones from the EHL
model. The central film thickness obtained by TEHL model is only 16.7% to 20% of
pt

the results obtained by the EHL model at 100 m/s.

ce

6 TEHL with Surface Roughness

In practice, the working surface of parts cannot be ideally smooth, the root mean
Ac

square roughness value is generally between 0.025-0.8 µm. Generally, the average
film thickness in the contact zone is also within the same magnitude range as the
roughness value, or even smaller, so it is necessary to consider the effect of roughness
in the TEHL simulation. In order to better predict the lubrication performance and
temperature rise of the components under actual working condition, three-dimensional
surface topography is taken into consideration in the following TEHL simulation. The
input parameters are kept the same with the given ones in the smooth cases. The
actual surface topography is shown in Fig.7, with the root mean square roughness 0.3
µm and the Ra 0.236 µm.

t
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Fig. 7 Actual surface topography

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The film distributions under the entrainment speed varying from 0.0009 m/s to
92.38 m/s are simulated using mixed TEHL model. The results are compared with the

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film distributions obtained by the traditional EHL model in Fig. 8.
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Fig. 8 Comparison of film distribution with surface roughness

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Fig. 9 Temperature rise distribution in the mid-film layer with surface roughness

Note that for low velocity, hydrodynamic effect is weak, or even non-existent,
there is severe asperity contacts, film distributions appears almost the same for EHL
model and TEHL model. With the increase of the speed, the film gets thicker, and the
difference between the two results gets more obvious as well. The temperature rise in
the mid-film layer is also obtained by the TEHL model as shown in Fig. 9. The faster
the speed, the greater the temperature rise, corresponding to a more significant
difference in the film distribution.

240
Low Speed 0.09m/s
200 Medium Speed 4.62m/s
High Speed 92.38m/s
Temperture rise (℃ )

t
160

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120

cr
80

40

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-2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0
X/a
Fig. 10 Temperature rise in the mid-film layer along x direction with surface roughness
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Moreover, the temperature rise in the mid-film layer distribution along x

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direction under three different speeds is plotted in Fig. 10. It can be seen that the
temperature rise concentrates in the Hertzian contact zone, while its tail extending to
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the downstream lubrication outlet zone at high entrainment speeds. These are
consistent with the findings for smooth surface. The results of average film thickness,
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average temperature rise and maximum temperature rise are summarized in Fig. 11.
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 t
Fig. 11 Temperature rise and average film thickness for rough surface

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7 Lubrication Characteristics of Spiral Bevel Gears for A Meshing Period
In order to study the lubrication performance and temperature rise of spiral bevel

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gears from the engaging-in point to the engaging-out point. TEHL analysis with rough
surface topography is carried out for three different contact paths (heel contact,
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middle contact, toe contact, they are usually used to check the contact quality, more
detail descriptions about them can be found in Ref (21)) over one meshing period.
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The geometric parameters of the gear and pinion are listed in Table 4. The rotation
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speed of the pinion is set to be 5000 r/min, and the load is 120 Nm.
Table 4 Geometrical parameters of the gear and pinion
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Geometric parameter Pinion Gear

Number of teeth 15 44
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Module (mm) 5.8

Tooth width (mm) 43
Average pressure angle 20°
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Mean spiral angle 30°

Shaft angle 90°
Face angle 22°10′ 72°50′
Pitch angle 18°49′ 71°11′
Root angle 17°10′ 67°50′
Outside diameter (mm) 100.08 257.08
Hand of spiral Left Right

Base on the Tooth Contact Analysis (TCA) method, the radii of curvature,
surface speed, and load sharing at each meshing point of the spiral bevel gear are
functions of the gear rotational angle. Detailed calculation methods and specific
values can be found in Ref (21). Then treat the above results, along with the gear
material parameters given in Table 5 and the lubricating oil parameters in Table 6 as
the input parameters of the mixed TEHL model. The root mean square roughness
value of the gear and pinion surface is set to be 0.3 µm, thus the equivalent composite
root mean square roughness  equals 0.424.
Table 5 Material parameters of spiral bevel gear
Material parameter Value
Effective elastic modulus (GPa) 219.78
Poisson’s ratio of the solids 0.3

t
3
Density of the solids (Kg/m ) 7850

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Thermal conductivity of the solids (W/m.K) 47

cr
Specific heat of the solids (J/kg.K) 460

Parameter us
Table 6 Parameters of the lubricating oil
Value
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Inlet viscosity of the lubricant (Pa.s) 0.09
3
Inlet density of the lubricant (Kg/m ) 846
Inlet temperature of the lubricant (K) 313
M

-1
Pressure-viscosity coefficient (GPa ) 12.5
-1
Temperature-viscosity coefficient (K ) 0.042
-1
Thermal expansivity of the lubricant (K ) 0.00064
ed

Thermal conductivity of the lubricant (W/m.K) 0.14

Specific heat of the lubricant (J/kg.K) 2000
Boundary lubrication friction coefficient 0.2
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The solution domain and grid of the TEHL model remain the same with the
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given ones in Section 3 with dimensionless increment of Δ𝑋 = 0.019531 ,

Δ𝑌 = 0.015625.
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 Fig. 12 Film and pressure distribution in the middle contact path for a meshing period

Fig. 12 presents the film and pressure distribution in the middle contact path for

t
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one engagement cycle. It is clear to see that the film thickness at the engaging-in point

cr
is the smallest over a meshing period, which indicates the worst lubrication condition.
And it shows the pressure distribution in the contact area over one meshing period

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starts increasing with the increase of the rotational angle till the middle stages,
followed by a decrease near the engaging-out point for the reduction of load.
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ed
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Fig. 13 Film and pressure distributions along x direction for a meshing period
 4.5
Heel contact
Middle contact

Average film thickness ha(m)

4.0
Toe contact
3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

0.00 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16

Gear rotation (rad)

t
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Fig. 14 Average film thickness for a meshing period

cr
In Fig. 13, the two-dimensional distributions of the film thickness and pressure
along x direction for heel contact, middle contact, and toe contact are plotted. It can be
noted that the film thickness and pressure for the three contact paths appear similar to
one another. Further, the average film thickness in the elliptical contact area at us
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different gear rotational angle for the three contact paths is shown in Fig. 14. It first
gradually increases till the middle and then fluctuates with slight rise afterwards to the
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engaging-out point. Obviously, the average film thickness for toe contact is greater
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than the thickness for the other two contact paths at the same angle. As illustrated in
Ref (21), the entrainment speed of the spiral bevel gear contact zone gradually
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increases in one meshing period, and the sliding speed reaches its bottom in the pitch
point, which explains the variation of the average film thickness with increasing
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angles. Furthermore, the entrainment speed for heel contact path at a certain angle is
known smaller than the speeds of the other two contact paths, which agrees with the
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observation in Fig. 14.

 t
ip
cr
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Fig. 15 Temperature rise along x direction and maximum temperature rise in a meshing
an
period

Fig.15 shows the temperature rise in the mid-film layer at engaging-in point,
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center point, engaging-out point along x direction and maximum temperature rise in
one meshing period. The temperature rise at the center point is found the least because
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of the lowest sliding velocity. Besides, the maximum temperature rise is related to the
sliding velocity and asperity contacts considering the surface roughness. Note that the
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maximum temperature rise gradually goes down near the engaging-out point for the
decrease of the load. The maximum temperature rise in Fig. 15 reaches 277 ℃ which
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cannot be neglected in the prediction of lubrication characteristics.

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8 Conclusions
In this paper, a mixed TEHL model has been established by considering the
arbitrary velocity vector and surface roughness. Based on numerical simulation, the
following conclusions can be drawn:
(a) The capability and efficiency of the proposed model have been validated by
comparing the film distributions of the entire transition from full-film lubrication and
mixed lubrication to boundary lubrication of the simulation results with the previous
experimental data.
(b) Considering the thermal effect, the film thickness of TEHL model is always
smaller than that of EHL model. With negligible temperature rise, the lubrication
performance calculated by the traditional EHL model agrees well with the TEHL
results.
(c) The temperature rise of the contact zone is related to the sliding speed.
Without considering the surface roughness, the faster the speed, the higher the
temperature. If surface topography is involved in the model, the maximum

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temperature rise also relates to the asperity contacts.
(d) The TEHL model has been applied to analyze the lubrication characteristics

cr
of the spiral bevel gears for a meshing period. The average film thickness increases

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first till the middle and fluctuates with slight rise afterwards, while the pressure
increases first to its peak and then decreases. Besides, the heel contact path has been
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found to have the best lubrication condition.
(e) The temperature rise of the spiral bevel gears has also been present using the
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TEHL model. The maximum temperature rise is related to the sliding velocity
corresponding to the gear rotational angle and asperity contacts.
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Acknowledgment
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The present study was founded by the National Science Foundation of China
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(NSFC) Project Nos. 51875369. Wei Pu would like to thank the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities No.YJ201752. Wei Pu also would like to
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thank Prof. Dong Zhu for the advice in the mixed EHL model in present study.

NOMENCLATURE
𝑎 semi-axis of the Hertzian contact ellipse in the x-direction
𝑏 semi-axis of the Hertzian contact ellipse in the y-direction
𝐸′ effective Young's modulus
ℎ, 𝐻 dimensional and dimensionless local film thickness (or gap), H= h/a
ℎ𝑎 average film thickness (or average gap) calculated within half radius from
the center of normalized Hertzian contact zone
ℎ𝑐 central film thickness
ℎ𝑚 minimum film thickness
𝑘 𝑏/𝑎, Hertzian contact ellipticity
𝑝, 𝑃 dimensional and dimensionless pressure, 𝑃 = 𝑝/𝑃ℎ ,
𝑃ℎ nominal maximum Hertzian contact pressure
𝑅𝑞 surface RMS roughness

𝑅𝑥 effective radius in the x-direction

t
𝑅𝑦

ip
effective radius in the y-direction

𝑡 time

cr
𝑢 rolling velocity component in the x-direction
𝑣
𝑢𝑠
rolling velocity component in the y-direction
sliding velocity us
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𝑢𝑒 rolling velocity in the direction of lubricant entrainment
𝑉 surface elastic deformation
M

𝑊 applied load
𝑥 x-coordinate, 𝑋 = 𝑥/𝑎, dimensionless x-coordinate
ed

𝑦 y-coordinate, 𝑌 = 𝑦/𝑏, dimensionless y-coordinate

𝛿1 , 𝛿2 roughness height of Surface 1 and Surface 2, respectively
pt

𝜂, 𝜂0 viscosity, and viscosity under ambient condition

ce

𝜆 ℎ𝑎 /𝜎, film thickness ratio, or 𝜆 ratio, or specific film thickness

𝜃, 𝜃𝑠 angle between the entraining velocity vector and the minor axis of Hertzian
Ac

ellipse, and angle between the sliding velocity vector and the minor axis of
Hertzian ellipse
ϵ angle between ⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝑢1 and ⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝑢2

𝜌0 , 𝜌𝑒 density under ambient condition and reduce density

𝜌𝑢∗ , 𝜌𝑣∗ two reduce densities
2 2 0.5
𝜎 (𝑅𝑞1 + 𝑅𝑞2 ) , composite RMS roughness
𝑇1 , 𝑇2 local temperature on Surface 1 and Surface 2, respectively
𝑇1𝑏 , 𝑇2𝑏 bulk temperature of body 1 and body 2, respectively
α pressure-viscosity coefficient
β temperature-viscosity coefficient
𝑓 heat distribution coefficient
𝑘𝑓 heat conductivity of lubricant
𝑐𝑓 specific heat of the lubricant

𝑘𝑠 heat conductivity of solids

𝑞1 , 𝑞2 heat fluxes at Surface 1 and Surface 2, respectively

t
𝜇𝑠

ip
friction coefficient of boundary lubrication
𝜇1 , 𝜇2 Poisson’s ratios of body 1 and body 2, respectively

cr
𝜑𝑋 , 𝜑𝑌 flow factors

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an
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