Tribology International 39 (2006) 789795 www.elsevier.

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The development of a feasible method for the tribological characterization of gear teeth surface treatments
Nicola Pio Belorea,*, Francesco Iannielloa, Stefano Natalib, Fabrizio Casadeic, Domenico Stocchic
a

Department Mechanics and Aeronautics, University of Rome La Sapienza, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy b Department of I.C.M.M.P.M., University of Rome La Sapienza, 00184 Rome, Italy c CSM S.p.A., Centro Sviluppo Materiali 000128, Via di Castel Romano, 100 Rome, Italy Available online 25 August 2005

Abstract In this investigation, an experimental campaign, dedicated to the tribological characterization of surface treatments for gears, is presented. Wear in gears is herein simulated by means of a Ring-on-Ring test machine, where the ring and the cylinder are chosen in such a way that the kinematic and dynamic conditions are as much as possible similar to those presented in the teeth contact, in one of the two extreme points of the action line. The dynamics is simulated by imposing the same contact stress, while the kinematic conditions are applied by assuming in the two systems the same ratio of the specic slide rather than the same sliding speed. The latter choice is justied by the results shown in a preliminary test phase, which have shown the importance of the specic slide for the prediction of wear in gear proles. The apparatus has shown a fair prediction capacity and has been used to compare the different wear resistances and typologies of gear pairs having different surface treatments. Results are herein presented and briey discussed. q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Friction and wear in transmissions directly affect the power losses and the components life. As well known, designers usually x surfaces treatments, such as, for instance, case hardening processes, especially in the gear manufacturing processes. The choice of the most proper treatment is not easy, being based on the designers experience and capability. Hence, a more systematic approach is needed, especially in new or special applications, with particular load cycles or under aggressive environments. This investigation deals, particularly, with the simulation of the contacts between gear teeth with different surface treatments and different roughness, in relation to their corresponding tribological characteristics. Efforts have been made to understand the inuence of case-hardening depths and of surface roughness on teeth wear resistance.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: C39 0644585227; fax: C39 06484854. E-mail addresses: belore@dma.ing.uniroma1.it (N.P. Belore), natali@metal1.ing.uniroma1.it (S. Natali), f.casadei@c-s-m.it (F. Casadei).

The results have been obtained using a developed experimental simulator which consists of a Ring-on-Ring test tribometer equipped with a ring and a cylinder which are put in contact under particular geometrical, kinematic, and dynamic conditions. The adopted system does not simulate impacts and geometrical discontinuities at the points of interest, namely the initial approach and nal recess points. Although the adopted system may be of uncertain precision in predicting the absolute overall component life, it is very reliable for a comparison analysis among sample pairs characterized by different material and surface treatments.

2. Theoretical background In this paper, wear in a given gear pair is simulated by the adoption of a Ring-on-Ring tribometer. Hence, the crosssectional view of the rings in plane motion appears as represented in Fig. 1. According to the involute curve theory, the curvature radii of the conjugate proles in a contact point X on the action line are equal to the distances of X from points T1 and T2, where the action line is tangent

0301-679X/$ - see front matter q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2005.07.008

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are present. In this case, wear can be simulated according to the Reyes dissipated energy method [36], which is based on the hypothesis that the volume of worn material after distance s has been covered is proportional, according to a constant, to the work performed by friction tangential force T in the same distance VZ 1 Ts tk (1)

Fig. 1. Scheme of the Ring-on-Ring apparatus.

where tk is a characteristic shear stress of the tribosystem. According to this equation, the lost normal height rate is given by dh p Zf w dt tk (2)

to the base circles [1,2]. Hence, radii r1 and r2 must be equal to T1X and T2X, represented in Fig. 2. Since the simulation is more helpful if its testing time is not longer that the real system life, the worst cases must be considered as if the contact points were always either at the beginning of the approach phase or at the end of the recess phase, namely, in the points M1 and M2, as depicted in Fig. 2. Such points are those, which present the highest sliding speed. For the sake of completeness, it is worth to be noticed that in correspondence of the pitch point the sliding speed is null. This could induce the wrong idea that in the pitch point there may be some problems in the lubricant ow. However, it is self-evident [2] that there is still a relative rolling angular velocity, which is helpful in oil abduction between the surfaces. For these reasons, only points M1 and M2 have been considered in this investigation. Once the contact point has been selected, the radii r1 and r2 can be consequently evaluated and a certain number of sample ring pairs can be properly machined. The experimental layout is realized in such a way that the simulating contact width, that is about 0.6 mm, is much shorter than in the original gear pair and the application of relatively small loads on the rolling triboelements can yield signicant stress, which is comparable to the one evaluated on the teeth contacts. The simulation of the kinematic conditions is more difcult. In fact, in M1 or M2 points, both sliding and rolling

where p, f, and w are, respectively, the pressure, the friction coefcient, and the sliding speed. Reyes method is particularly interesting for wear analysis in gears, since the ow of energy created by the dissipative forces can be supposed as causing a damage on the two surfaces which is inversely proportional to the areas of the two surfaces that are swept by the contacts in an innitesimal time interval. As a consequence, the amount of damage is the same on the two teeth only at the pitch point, while in the other points along the line of action, the normal worn height dhs and dh2, on the two proles s and 2, will be proportional to the specic slide s1 Z w w and s2 Z ; us u2 (3)

accordingly to the relations dhs Z 1 1 fpda s1 and dh2 Z fpda s2 ; tk tk (4)

assuming the same constant tk for both, being da the width (considered a small quantity) of the deformed contact area, us and u2 the speeds of the virtual contact point on the two proles us Z ds d2 and u2 Z : dt dt (5)

For external wheels, the sliding velocity w is given by jwjZ w1 C w2 P0 X, where Po is the pitch point, u1 and u2 are the angular velocities of the two gears. For the contact points M1 and M2, the distance from the pitch point can be obtained analytically by relations q m Po M1 Z z2 sin2 w C 4z2 C 4 Kz2 sinw (6a) 2 2 and P o M2 Z
Fig. 2. Qualitative view of the involute teeth proles in contact in the generic point X of the line of action M1M2.

m 2

q z2 sin2 w C 4z1 C 4 Kz1 sinw 1

(6b)

where w is the pressure angle, m is the module, and z is the number of teeth, which yields the values 7.53 and 6.93 mm,

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Fig. 3. Specimen worn surface using teeth sliding speed of the reference case (450!).

respectively, which correspond to the sliding velocities w1Z3.55 m/s and w2Z3.27 m/s for the two contact points. The specic slide is of fundamental importance in order to simulate surface damage in the gear pair by using a standard Ring-on-Ring Tribometers. In fact, some limitations imposed by the adopted tribometer do not allow to achieve the correct values of the sliding speed w and of the two speeds us and u2, simultaneously. In a rst attempt, the simulator sliding speed has been set in such a way to be the same as in the real teeth contact, in the worst point of the recess phase. As a consequence, the operative specic slides, and their ratio, do not comply with those of the gears. By adopting such assumption, the simulations, after 2 h of test, have given poor results, as shown in Fig. 3. In fact, there is a certain quantity of material, which has passed from one surface to the other. In the other attempt, for the same number of cycles, the tribometer rings angular velocities have been set in such a way to maintain the same specic slide ratio as in the real system. In this case, the above-mentioned limitations on the test machines did not allow to achieve a good agreement of the sliding speeds in the real and the accelerated systems. In particular, the simulated sliding speed has been lower than in the real gearing. In spite of this, the simulations have yielded surprisingly good results. As a matter of facts, surface damage on the sample tests appeared very similar to the one observed on the real teeth surfaces, as shown in Fig. 4.

Hence, it seems correct to conclude that the simulator based on the condition of the equivalence of the specic slide ratios performs better than the simulator based on the equivalence of the sliding speeds. In fact, the same sliding speed can be obtained by different pairs of the values of the angular velocities for the ring and the cylinder. For example, a given value of the sliding speed can be obtained even with two angular velocities having the same sense of direction, which is evidently the opposite way of working of a real pair of external gears. On the other hand, Eqs. (3) and (4) demonstrate that wear on the two surfaces is proportional to the specic slide s1 and s2, and, therefore, the simulator based on the uniformity of the specic slide ratio assures that wear is distributed on the two surfaces as in the real system. Of course, even better results could be obtained by fullling both the conditions, but this is not always possible since the test machine imposes limited values of the angular speeds of the ring and the cylinder.

3. Dynamic and kinematic characteristics of the gears under analysis The system to be studied consists in a cylindrical spur gear pair, which should be able to transmit a maximum torque equal to 290 N m to the output shaft, while the input shaft angular velocity is 2750 rpm. Teeth are expected to

Fig. 4. Specimen worn surface using the same ratio between the specic sliding velocities of the reference case (450!).

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Table 1 Results of the kinematic and Hertzian contact analysis Contact point r1 (mm) r2 (mm) us (m/s) u2 (m/s) us/u2 (w( (m/s) Equivalent radius rm (mm) 18.33 10.57 20.62 Maximum pressure (MPa) 909 1196 856

Po M1 M2

13.75 6.22 20.56

27.49 35.02 20.68

4.31 1.95 6.49

4.31 5.5 3.23

1 0.35 y2

0 3.55 3.27

keep their functionality after 107 exural fatigue cycles, under a maximum torque of 600 N m. The simulation is made supposing an input angular velocity equal to 3000 rpm. Gear ratio, pinion teeth number, module and pressure angle are, respectively, equal to 0.5, 36, 2.54 mm, and 17.58. In the reference case, the active normal force acting on the teeth surfaces is equal to 6650 N. The contact kinematics, as well as the results of the application of the basic Hertzian Theory are summarized in Table 1.

4. Experimental layout The research groups aim is the development of a feasible method for quantitatively evaluating, for an assigned pair of triboelements, the endurance capabilities of a treatment against wear and friction. The experimental work, based on a Ring-on-ring tribometer, has been limited, mainly, to the testing of 18NiCrMo5 steel for gears. According to the experimental set-up, a ring is pressed against a cylinder, the two specimens rotating at assigned angular velocities.

Fig. 5. (a) Pictorial view of the adopted test machine; (b) view of the ring and the cyclinder; (c) cross-sectional view of the ring-cylinder contact.

N.P. Belore et al. / Tribology International 39 (2006) 789795 Table 2 Sample characteristics Class label A B C C-bis Hardening depth (mm) w0.3 w0.5 w0.8 w0.8 Roughness Ra (mm) 1.21.5 1.21.5 1.21.5 0.40.8

793

Fig. 6. Hardness prole for 1 mm depth.

At the beginning a brief cycle of tests has been performed, by imposing a time test of 3 h. After that, it has been noted that 2 h tests could be conveniently adopted with no loss of signicant information. Hence, the resultant number of cycles was 1.32!105. The implementation of the tribological testing methodology has allowed to carry out a comparative analysis among different tested samples that showed ways of surface damage very close to the ones of the spur gear surfaces. Particularly, surface analysis, by electronic scanning microscopy (SEM), showed that the phenomena of pitting and scufng depend on the testing parameters, such as, for instance, the hardness and roughness characteristics of samples. The tribometer is able to control the normal load from 0 up to 900 N and the temperature from 0 up to 1200 8C. The cylinder angular speed can be controlled from 50 to 1200 rpm, with minimum increments of 10 rpm, while the ring angular speed can assume values from 50 to only 550 rpm, with the same minimum increments. Rotation can have either the same or the opposite sense of direction. In this investigation, the tests have been performed at environment temperature and under limit lubrication.

The two samples can be machined, treated, and nished in such a way to present surface characteristics similar to the ones of the teeth to be simulated. Typically, they appear as shown in Fig. 5. The normal load and the two velocities can be set within some limitations imposed by the test machine.

5. Geometrical and physical sample characteristics For practical and economical reasons, tests have been simulated by approximating the contact conditions in

Fig. 7. Class A, 100 N, at different magnications. (a) (200!) (b) (1000!) (c) (1400!) (d) (5000!).

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According to the adopted test procedure, samples are rst cleaned through an ultrasonic bath and then their masses are acquired through a certain number of measurements, which are treated statistically. After these operations, both the cylinder and the ring are made revolute at the assigned angular velocity before they are put in contact. Drops of gear oil 80W90 GL5 have been used to lubricate the contact with a frequency of 0.25 Hz. Loads are monitored by means of a normal and a exural cell. Each hour, motion is stopped to measure the masses of the samples and to observe their surfaces by means of optical microscopy. At the end of the overall test time, surface portions are cut away from the samples to allow SEM observation.

6. Results and discussion As a rst evidence, it must be noted that the masses of the samples did not change signicantly, at least within the precision of the adopted balance, namely, 0.2!10K6 kg. SEM observations lead to discriminate the sample behaviours [79]. From the rst preliminary views, the surface damage has appeared as characterized by pitting. This method has allowed to compare different carburising classes, whose properties are shown in Table 2 and Fig. 6.

Fig. 8. Class B, 100 N, at different magnications. (a) (200!) (b) (1000!).

the worst case of the recess point M2, where the samples radii have been both assumed 24 mm. Cylinder and ring axial lengths are, respectively, 25 and 10 mm, while the second main curvature radius of the toroidal surface is 5 mm. The ring active surface has theoretically a one-point contact. However, after few revolutions the contact becomes linear with a width of w0.6 mm. This allows to achieve appreciable contact stress, which are comparable to the one to be simulated. Samples have been subject to carburization with different depth (see Table 2), and have a surface hardness from 750 up to 850 HV1. The hardness prole (HV1) of the samples is shown in Fig. 6 for a depth of 1 mm. The simulation in M2 implies a sliding speed of 3.26 m/s as a difference of the two velocities usZ6.49 m/s and u2Z3.23 m/s. Unfortunately, such conditions cannot be simultaneously imposed. Hence, as remarked before, the sliding speed has been reduced during simulation, while the ratio of the two specic slides has been maintained with respect to the real system. In particular, the cylinder and the ring angular velocities have been set equal to 1100 and 550 rpm, respectively, with usZ2.76 m/s, u2Z1.38 m/s, and wZ1.38 m/s. According to the Hertzian theory, the maximum stress is reached inside the material, under the surface, at a depth of about 0.45 mm.

Fig. 9. Class C, 100 N, at different magnications. (a) (200!) (b) (1400!).

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Fig. 10. Qualitative equivalent stress distribution under the surface (testing conditions). DepthZz; depth of maximum stressZzm; yield stressZsy; equivalent stress with null frictionZsr; equivalent stress (with friction coefcient greater than 0.2)Zsr 0 .

Fig. 11. C-bis class sample with 120 N and RaZ0.40.8 mm (700!).

The friction coefcients have been recorded by the acquisition system during the test. Their values have been over the minimum value of 0.2, with a maximum of 0.32. Inside the worn tracks of the samples belonging to the A class, the pit density and distribution is greater than in the B and C cases. Among the latter two, B is the treatment that yields the highest hardness values, as illustrated in Fig. 6. The B class appears more resistant to pitting than C, in spite of its increased hardened depth. Figs. 79 report some views, at different magnications, of the surface damage. Since the detected damage has mainly the nature of pitting, a detailed roughness analysis is not really representative of the worn surface. On the other hand, SEM observations can give a good estimation of the reported damage. Hence, interpretations have been based, in this investigation, mainly trough visual inspection. For example, Fig. 7 shows how some fractures may propagate parallel to the surface. Sample A show an increased damage probably due to the lowest surface hardness. The surface analyses results could be explained supposing that the applied load, the pair geometry, and the value of the friction coefcient f lead to a condition in which the equivalent stress sr distribution reaches [10] its rst maximum immediately close to the surface and its second maximum at a depth ZmZ0.45 mm from the surface (see Fig. 10). Hence, the high stress values, which occur on the surface, induce micropitting phenomena characterised by microcracks on the surface layers. In fact, it has been evidenced that the pit depths are limited to values from 5 to 8 mm. Finally, some samples of class C have been nished in a different way in order to decrease their roughness to values of about RaZ0.40.8 mm. Fig. 11 shows how lower values of the roughness can improve the pitting surface resistance.

7. Conclusions In this investigation, a method for the characterization of the surface treatments has been developed for the spur gear pairs. The approach has been applied to compare three different classes of carburizing treatments. Results have demonstrated the importance of the hardness values and the depth of treatments. However, it has been noted that surface roughness may have inuence on the resistance to surface damage. In fact, a decrement of the friction forces has the effect of decreasing the overall maximum shear stresses close to the surface, with much benet to pitting resistance. On the other hand, hardness of the external layer improves performances in the cases where the maximum shear stress is located inside the treated layer.

References
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