Intelligent Manufacturing Technology

Numerical Visualization of Grease Flow in a Gearbox

  • Hua Liu ,
  • Florian Dangl ,
  • Thomas Lohner ,
  • Karsten Stahl
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  • School of Engineering & Design, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Munich, Gear Research Center (FZG), Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching near Munich, Germany

收稿日期: 2020-10-16

  修回日期: 2022-10-01

  网络出版日期: 2023-12-21

基金资助

Supported by the German Research Foundation e.V. (DFG). The presented results are based on the research project STA1198/14-1

Numerical Visualization of Grease Flow in a Gearbox

  • Hua Liu ,
  • Florian Dangl ,
  • Thomas Lohner ,
  • Karsten Stahl
Expand
  • School of Engineering & Design, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Munich, Gear Research Center (FZG), Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching near Munich, Germany

Received date: 2020-10-16

  Revised date: 2022-10-01

  Online published: 2023-12-21

Supported by

Supported by the German Research Foundation e.V. (DFG). The presented results are based on the research project STA1198/14-1

摘要

Lubricating greases are widely used in e.g. open gear drives and gearboxes with difficult sealing conditions. The efficiency and heat balance of grease-lubricated gearboxes depend strongly on the lubrication mechanisms channeling and circulating, for which the grease flow is causal. The computational fluid dynamics opens up the possibility to visualize and understand the grease flow in gearboxes in more detail. In this study, a single-stage gearbox lubricated with an NLGI 1-2 grease was modeled by the finite-volume method to numerically investigate the fluid flow. Results show that the rotating gears influence the grease sump only locally around the gears. For a low grease fill volume, the rotation of the gears is widely separated from the grease sump. For a high grease fill volume, a pronounced gear-grease interaction results in a circulating grease flow around the gears. The simulated grease distributions show good accordance with high-speed camera recordings.

本文引用格式

Hua Liu , Florian Dangl , Thomas Lohner , Karsten Stahl . Numerical Visualization of Grease Flow in a Gearbox[J]. Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2023 , 36(2) : 28 -28 . DOI: 10.1186/s10033-023-00831-7

Abstract

Lubricating greases are widely used in e.g. open gear drives and gearboxes with difficult sealing conditions. The efficiency and heat balance of grease-lubricated gearboxes depend strongly on the lubrication mechanisms channeling and circulating, for which the grease flow is causal. The computational fluid dynamics opens up the possibility to visualize and understand the grease flow in gearboxes in more detail. In this study, a single-stage gearbox lubricated with an NLGI 1-2 grease was modeled by the finite-volume method to numerically investigate the fluid flow. Results show that the rotating gears influence the grease sump only locally around the gears. For a low grease fill volume, the rotation of the gears is widely separated from the grease sump. For a high grease fill volume, a pronounced gear-grease interaction results in a circulating grease flow around the gears. The simulated grease distributions show good accordance with high-speed camera recordings.

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