Analytical and Experimental Research of Lubrication Load-Bearing Characteristics of Microtextured Meshing Interface

Abstract

The excellent lubrication and load-bearing synergistic modulation of the meshing interface has been well recognized, as the microtextured tooth surface seems to be a punished area in deep-sea gear thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL). This is mainly because of the traditional perception of the anti-scuffing load-bearing capacity (ASLBC) and the similarity of the interfacial microelement configurations. Microtextured contact can be applied to the meshing interface to adjust the time-varying TEHL characteristics and enhance the meshing load-bearing performance. In this study, the analytical homogeneous equivalent micro-hydrodynamic contact multiscale parameters are determined, and the dispersed micro-flow real distribution area of the texturing interface is indicated, revealing the TEHL friction characteristics of the rolling–sliding line contact microelement, which is regarded as a bridge connecting the micro-dynamic pressure discrete contact friction behavior and the TEHL textured interface meshed-gear load-bearing. The contact model mentioned theoretically predicts the evolutionary time-varying characteristics of the micro-thermoelastic lubrication behavior of the textured contact interface under hydrodynamic conditions and demonstrates that the microtextured configuration parameters of the molecular scale meshing interface are the most influential structural parameters for the load-bearing problem of the homogeneous flow pressure film layer between the gear pair tooth surfaces, especially for deep-sea gear meshing load-bearing reliability under limited lubrication space.