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Spiral bevel gears are commonly used in heavy-duty trucks and buses. An integrated dynamic model of the spiral bevel gears with mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication is proposed in this study. First, loaded tooth contact analysis was performed to evaluate the kinematic parameters and calculate the mesh force variation for one mesh cycle. These kinematic quantities are used in the mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) calculation to determine the EHL parameters such as pressure, film thickness, and shear distribution considering the surface roughness profile of the spiral bevel gears. Then, the EHL pressure and film thickness are used in the calculation of the coefficient of friction, damping, and oil film elastohydrodynamic lubrication stiffness. Last, these tribological parameters are used in the dynamic calculation of the spiral bevel gears.

Modeling of elastohydrodynamic lubrication phenomena for the spiral bevel gears is performed in the present study. The damping and the friction coefficient generated from the lubricated contact area will have profound effects on the dynamics of spiral bevel gears. Thus the damping value generated from this friction model will be time varying. This makes the use of constant and empirical damping value in the dynamics of spiral bevel gears questionable. The input geometric and kinematic data required for the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) simulations are obtained using Tooth Contact Analysis. A full numerical elastohydrodynamic lubrication simulations are carried out using asymmetric integrated control volume (AICV) algorithm to compute the contact pressures. The fast Fourier transform is used to calculate the elastic deformations on the gear surfaces due to contact load.