Finite Element Simulation Of Transmission Involute Spline Wear

Involute splines are frequently employed in vehicle transmission to transmit rotarymotion and torque between driven gear and output shaft because they have the advantages ofbeing stressed uniformly, high specific torque transmission capacity as well as good coaxial.As the car is often under complex driving conditions, although the spline couplings arealways in the state of constant mesh without significant relative slip, the frequent frettingcontact of spline tooth surface often makes the surface worn seriously. Currently the study oftransmission spline wear process is mainly based on experimental research. As the wearexperiment is destructive testing and will take a long time, it is of importance to find aneffective method to predict wear life, and monitor the wear process. This paper is based on theanalysis of the spline wear mechanism, using ABAQUS to simulate the wear depth of splinetooth surface.With the support of school-enterprise cooperation projects, this paper is based on acertain type of transmission which occurred serious spline wear. Through studying themechanism of spline wear, we simulated the wear depth of spline tooth surface using thecommercial finite element software ABAQUS. Details are as follows:First, we simulate the interference assembly of driven gear internal spline and shaftexternal spline, and obtain the initial state of deformation and stress of spline couplings underfreedom state.After completion of the interference assembly simulation analysis, the simulation resultis as the initial state field for the simulation of dynamic meshing between driven gear internalsplines and output shaft splines after.applying rotation velocity and torque. On the basis ofanalysis the performance for spline mesh and the modified Archard’s Wear Law, we calculatethe wear depth of spline tooth surface using MATLAB to integrate the curve of stress andrelative sliding velocity changing with time.Finally, we have analyzed the spline backlash, master-slave gear contact ratio and gearhelix angle on the abrasion performance of the spline. By contrast, we have found thatreducing of the spline backlash, master-slave gear contact ratio and gear helix angle can reduce wear depth and extend the life of the spline.In summary, this paper has carried on the simulation of microscopic wear depth fortransmission spline couplings witch with interference fit, providing a method for studying thefretting wear of spline and predicting the service life of the spline. Through comparing thewear depth for different parameters of spline and gears, this paper points out the direction forimproving the transmission spline wear.