Experimental and numerical wear analysis of nylon 6 standard and asymmetric profile polymer gears

The use of polymer gears is increasingly becoming popular due to their lightweight, low noise, and low manufacturing cost. However, wear is a critical issue affecting their durability and reliability. This study aims to investigate the wear behavior of asymmetric polymer gears using experimental and numerical methods. The experiments involve conducting wear tests under varying load, speed, and temperature conditions. The numerical method involved an explicit dynamic algorithm to simulate the gear contact and wear behavior. In the current approach of the dynamic contact of gears, the contact forces generated are highly non-linear and time dependent in nature. Also, stress concentration is observed only at the point/line of contact, which accelerates the wear rate. Hence, in order to effectively capture these phenomena, explicit dynamic analysis is best suited for capturing the wear behavior of gear pairs under a given operating domain. While Implicit methods are best suited for static analysis where the response of the system is not time dependent. The simulation model is validated using experimental data, and the wear behavior is analyzed using wear rate, contact pressure, and contact stress. The weight loss percentage method has been used to analyze the wear amount on the gears. The results show that the wear rate increases with increasing load and speed, while decreasing with increasing temperature. A temperature rise of 4°C–5°C has been observed for a running time of 6 h. Thus, temperature rise may not lead to a major wear in Nylon 6 gears. The numerical results show good agreement with the experimental data, with around 5% variation, indicating that finite element analysis can be a reliable method for predicting the wear behavior of polymer gears.