Coupled vibration analysis of tooth wear in internal herringbone gear pair

Tooth wear is one of the most common failures during gearing, which seriously affects the transmission performance and life of gears. However, gear wear affects meshing excitations, such as meshing stiffness and contact pressure, and further increases vibration and noise levels. The aim of this paper is to develop a coupled vibration wear model to reveal the tooth wear characteristics of an internal herringbone gear pair. A new geometrical model of the gear wear meshing relationship is proposed for assessing the effect of gear wear on the meshing stiffness and the effect of the changed meshing stiffness on gear wear. Combining Archard's wear theory and the idea of slicing method, the wear model of internal herringbone gear sub-drive is established, the tooth normal load and contact pressure are obtained by using kinetic equations, the correctness of the established model is verified by numerical calculations. The results show that an increase in tooth wear is often accompanied by a decrease in mesh stiffness, but appropriate minor wear can help improve the poor original fit and mesh quality. As the number of cycles increases, the dominant wear region shifts from the lower half of the tooth face to the upper half, but there are still a few regions in the lower half of the tooth face region that still lead in wear. The study provides a theoretical basis for improving the precision and efficiency of internal meshing herringbone gear transmission, slowing down wear, and improving life.