Numerical Simulation Investigation on the Windage Power Loss of a High-Speed Face Gear Drive

Abstract

Reducing the energy consumption and improving the efficiency of high-speed transmission systems are increasingly common goals; the windage power loss is not negligible in these methods. In this work, the multi-reference frame (MRF) and periodic boundary conditions (PBC) based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method were adopted to investigate the windage phenomena of a single face gear with and without a shroud, and the impact of the gear speed on the windage power loss was analyzed. Furthermore, the effects on the distribution of static pressure due to the distances between the shroud and the gear body in different directions, including the outer radius direction, the inner radius direction, and the addendum direction were investigated. The results indicate that the gear speed significantly affected the windage loss, as the higher the gear speed was, the greater the windage power loss. Additionally, the shroud could effectively reduce the windage power loss, where the optimal distance from the addendum to the shroud was not the minimum distance; however, for the distances from the shroud to the inner radius and the outer radius, the smaller the distance was, the smaller the windage loss. The results can provide a theoretical basis and technical reference for reducing the windage power loss of various face gear drives.