A spur gear mesh interface damping model based on elastohydrodynamic contact behaviour

In this study, the damping mechanism at the interface of the mating spur gear teeth is investigated. The dynamic behaviour of a spur gear pair is represented by a two Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) nonlinear model with the damping provided by the instantaneous tribological behaviour of the tooth contacts. The shear stress distributions along the tooth surfaces are incorporated with the dynamic model to formulate the periodic gear mesh viscous damping. With the assumption the radii of curvature of the contact surfaces can be represented by the ones at the pitch point, a simplified expression for the damping ratio is formulated.