Effect of Tooth Geometry on Multi-cycle Meshing Temperature of POM Worm Gears: Parametric Study via an Adaptive Iteration Algorithm

Abstract Meshing temperature analyses of polymer gears reported in the literature mainly concern the effects of various material combinations and loading conditions, as their impacts could be seen in the first few meshing cycles. However, the effects of tooth geometry parameters could manifest as the meshing cycles increase. This study investigated the effects of tooth geometry parameters on the multi-cycle meshing temperature of polyoxymethylene (POM) worm gears, aiming to control the meshing temperature elevation by tuning the tooth geometry. Firstly, a finite element (FE) model capable of separately calculating the heat generation and simulating the heat propagation was established. Moreover, an adaptive iteration algorithm was proposed within the FE framework to capture the influence of the heat generation variation from cycle to cycle. This algorithm proved to be feasible and highly efficient compared with experimental results from the literature and simulated results via the full-iteration algorithm. Multi-cycle meshing temperature analyses were conducted on a series of POM worm gears with different tooth geometry parameters. The results reveal that, within the range of 14.5° to 25°, a pressure angle of 25° is favorable for reducing the peak surface temperature and overall body temperature of POM worm gears, which influence flank wear and load-carrying capability, respectively. However, addendum modification should be weighed because it helps with load bearing but increases the risk of severe flank wear. This paper proposes an efficient iteration algorithm for multi-cycle meshing temperature analysis of polymer gears and proves the feasibility of controlling the meshing temperature elevation during multiple cycles by tuning tooth geometry.