An investigation into the influence of viscosity on gear churning losses by considering the effective immersion depth
Author(s)
Shore, Joseph F
Kolekar, Anant S
Ren, Ning
Kadiric, Amir
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We present an experimental investigation into the influence of oil viscosity on gear churning losses in splash-lubricated transmission systems. The inertia rundown method was used to perform tests on a single gear within a cylindrical housing with several oils of different viscosities at several immersion depths. A complex and nonmonotonic relationship between churning torque and viscosity was observed that was highly influenced by the rotational speed, with higher viscosity oils resulting in lower churning torque at higher speeds in some cases. This was attributed to a reduction in effective immersion depth due to oil being centrifugally distributed around the casing by the rotating gear, an effect that was observed to be more pronounced with higher viscosity oils. An effective immersion depth parameter, dependent on the rotational speed of the gear and the lubricant viscosity, was defined to account for this phenomenon. Gear churning losses could be better predicted using an existing empirical model when this parameter was used instead of the nominal immersion depth as is usually done.
Date Issued
2023-09-05
Date Acceptance
2023-08-08
Citation
Tribology Transactions, 2023, 66 (5), pp.906-919
ISSN
1040-2004
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Start Page
906
End Page
919
Journal / Book Title
Tribology Transactions
Volume
66
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted
Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted
Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
License URL
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10402004.2023.2247041
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2023-08-17