Gear Windage: A Review when a gear is running in an oil bath or is dipping into oil “slugs.

”
Estimates on the percentage effect of windage vary as the value is
dependent on a number of different parameters. Townsend 关2兴
Carol N. Eastwick identified the variables as
e-mail: [email protected] • the diameter of the rotating elements
• the length of the rotating elements
Graham Johnson • the speed of rotation
e-mail: [email protected] • the web or gear-blank design
• the overall casing design
School of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing • the type of oil feed system
Engineering, • the operating temperature and viscosity of oil
• the pressurization of the casing.
University of Nottingham,
University Park, One of the critical parameters is the pitch line velocity; obvi-
Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK ously, high velocities 共Ref. 关2兴 suggests 51 m / s, and Ref. 关3兴 sug-
gests tangential speeds greater than 90– 120 m / s兲 produce greater
stirred motion, so large gears rotated at high rotational rates are
particularly vunerable. Additionally, the lubrication flow rate and
The efficiency of power and propulsive systems is increasingly scavenge design are critical as these directly affect the properties
being targeted as a means of reducing environmental impact. This of the fluid surrounding the gear 关2,4兴. So, in a case where you
has caused a renewed interest in industry in the losses associated have a high level of lubricant suspended around a gear with high
with meshing gears. Gearbox efficiency varies from 98% to 99% pitch velocity, as is the case in an aeroengine, windage becomes a
for the best designed high power applications, but that can still significant contributor to the power loss. It may only account for a
equate to losses in megawatts. There are different mechanisms for few percent, but this can be critical.
losses that have been identified within gearboxes; these are mesh- Traditionally, there have been two approaches to reducing
ing losses, bearing losses, windage losses, and churning losses. WPL; the first is to use a shroud or baffle to enclose gears and the
Depending on the application, the relative importance of these second is to positively pump the oil and air from the gearbox
mechanisms varies. This paper reviews information on windage casing. Pumping from the gearbox casing is known as evacuating
power loss. The motivation for this is that for some applications, the gearbox 关1兴, and allows a reduction of fluid density within the
this power loss can be a significant component, particularly casing. This can result in up to 1% improvement in efficiency but
lightly loaded high-speed applications. For instance, within some can only be used in a limited number of situations.
aeroengines, gears are mounted internally within bearing cham- This paper reviews issues that affect gear WPL, which is one
bers. The component of windage power loss becomes significant subset of problems that affect gearbox designers. The aim of the
in this case, and the flows associated with windage power loss review is to provide a comprehensive compilation of published
have a significant impact on the amount of heat transferred to the information on WPL to assist gearbox designers in identifying
oil within the chamber, which is a critical design consideration. relevant experimental and modeling information.
This paper provides a review of experimental investigations and To assist designers, some other issues that impact power loss
available models of gear windage power loss for spur, helical, and have been identified, and a few references have been supplied to
bevel gears. The aim of the review is to provide a comprehensive provide a starting point for interested readers. For example, there
compilation of published information on windage power loss to is the issue of the heat generated by gears. Some recent papers in
assist gearbox designers in identifying relevant experimental and the area provide a starting point; for example, Long et al. 关5兴 and
modeling information. While it is clear from the review of pub- Jia and Quinones 关6兴 described experimental and theoretical
lished work that the rotational speed, gear geometrical param- analyses for surface temperatures of gears, while Hohn et al. 关7兴
eters, degree of confinement, and density of the fluid surrounding provided a description of a whole gearbox analysis for heat gen-
the gear are important, the degree of effect and general solutions eration and dissipation. The effect of lubricant jet location on gear
for reducing power loss are less clear. 关DOI: 10.1115/1.2829983兴 operating temperatures is the subject of papers by Townsend and
Akin 关8兴 for spur gears and Handschuh 关9兴 for bevel gears.
Keywords: transmissions, gears, power loss, windage, gearbox
This review does not cover any issues regarding gear lubrica-
efficiency, empirical models, review
tion 共a recent review by Olver 关10兴 provides an excellent starting
point on this topic兲. Nor does this review cover dipped or im-
1 Introduction mersed gears, which experience churning power losses 共Boness
The losses associated with meshing gears are important in the 关11兴 and Luke and Olver 关12兴 provided information on this area兲.
design of many industrial, marine, and gas turbine situations. Meshing losses are a major proportion of gear power losses,
Gearbox efficiency varies from 98% to 99% for the best designed and it is outside the scope of this paper to provide a full review of
high power applications. The highest rated gearboxes now exceed the work in that area. However, some references are provided to
100 MW 关1兴, so a 2% loss of efficiency equates to 2 MW of lost assist the designer. Meshing losses include sliding friction
energy. 关13–16兴, oil rolling or pumping 关14,15,17兴, oil acceleration
There are different mechanisms for losses that have been iden- 关16,18,19兴, and ejection 关13兴.
tified within gearboxes; these are meshing losses, bearing losses, The rest of the paper is divided into experimental and modeling
windage losses, and churning losses. Depending on the applica- studies into WPL for spur, helical, and bevel gears.
tion, the relative importance of these mechanisms varies.
Windage power loss 共WPL兲 is defined as the power loss due to
the fluid drag experienced by the gear when it is running in air or
an air-oil mist. Churning power loss is defined as the power loss
2 Experimental Investigations of Gear Windage
Before reviewing the published data on gear windage, it is use-
Contributed by the Power Transmission and Gearing Committee of ASME for
publication in the JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL DESIGN. Manuscript received May 16,
ful to briefly summarize work that has investigated windage due
2006; final manuscript received June 13, 2007; published online February 14, 2008. to a rotating disk. An enclosed rotating disk can be regarded as a
Review conducted by Teik C. Lim. simplification of an enclosed single spur gear. Since Daily and

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 Nece 关20,21兴 instigated experimental and theoretical work in the systematic research that targeted WPL and methods for reducing
area there have been a number of investigations that followed it. His work provided a great deal of information and provided a
共e.g., Refs. 关22–24兴兲. basis for further investigations.
Etemad et al. 关23兴 provided an equation for windage power Lord 关27兴 gave a detailed report of testing conducted on spur,
absorption for an enclosed rotating disk with no net mass transfer helical, and bevel gears at the University of Wales, Swansea. Test-
between rotor and stator. This is quoted below 共Eq. 共1兲兲 and is a ing was conducted on three rigs over a number of years investi-
function of the fluid properties surrounding the disk, disk rotation gating both windage and meshing losses. Lord described three
rate, and geometrical features of the disk and enclosure, general phenomena for gear windage: the loss of power due to the
pumping of air from the center of a gear disk to the outer periph-

Pw = 0.0311 冋册s
r
−1/4
␮1/4␳3/4␻11/4r9/2 共1兲
ery, the loss of power due to the pumping of air through the teeth,
and the loss of power associated with the passage of a tooth
through the wake of the preceding tooth. For spur gears, the major
geometric variables in WPL are the radius and module, with the
While this bears some relation to fully enclosed gears 共especially
face width having a less significant impact. Lord found that a
for very low modules兲, it is not fully physically representative.
maximum WPL was experienced for a spur gear of Module 4 and
2.1 Spur Gears. Dawson 关25,26兴, Lord 关27兴, and Diab et al. that the minimum was seen for that of Module 1. However, the
关28兴 investigated windage due to single spur gears in isolation. experimental test only tested spur gears of Modules 1–5. Lord
Dawson 关25兴 investigated how windage losses are affected by also concluded that shrouding a single gear in air reduces windage
speed, size, gear geometry, and shrouding for single spur gears in losses to 25% of their unshrouded values. There were a number of
air. Dawson measured the WPL due to gear disk faces, smooth unresolved questions arising from his work, not least why was a
drum 共spur gear without teeth兲, and a full spur gear for a variety of peak in power loss seen related to a particular module, and was
modules. Thirty-seven spur gears of root diameter 300– 1160 mm this linked to radius and hence tip speed?
with face widths of 32– 187 mm and tooth modules of 2 – 24 mm Some of the testing conducted at Swansea 关27兴 investigated the
were tested. The work undertaken by Dawson was carried out in effect of shrouding single and meshed gears. Axial and peripheral
his own domestic garage using wood and cardboard representative shrouds were tested on a single spur gear. No measurable change
gears. in power loss was noted with changes in axial clearance from
Dawson concluded that for gears with realistic sized teeth and 1 mm to 10 mm. Significant reductions in WPL were measured
face width, the main contributors to windage losses were the teeth with the addition of peripheral shrouding. With a 1 mm peripheral
共e.g., gear of diameter of 760 mm, face width of 187 mm, and clearance, windage loss at high speeds was reduced by 75%. This
module of 8 mm, seeing over 90% of losses due to teeth兲. bears out the conclusion from Dawson’s work 关25,26兴. The rela-
From comparing the power loss at high and low face widths, he tionship between power loss and peripheral clearance was ap-
concluded that the teeth may be acting as a centrifugal fan draw- proximately linear. An equation for predicting WPL of shrouded
ing in air axially at the ends of the teeth and ejecting it radially spur gears 共Module 1兲 was developed 共see Sec. 3.1兲. Lord also
and/or tangentially toward the middle of the face. This was con- noted that the presence of a hole 共e.g., drain hole兲 in the axial
firmed by the visualization. Dawson then blocked axial entry into shroud caused an increase in power loss.
the teeth, and reductions of 22–44% were seen in the WPL. Diab et al. 关28兴 presented an experimental and numerical study
Dawson then investigated the performance of various shrouding of a single gear rotating in air without enclosure. Four different
共enclosure兲 arrangements consisting of axial and peripheral 共ra- spur gears were used with pitch diameters from
dial兲 shrouds with different spacings. All tests were undertaken on 144 mm to 300 mm, face width of 30– 60 mm, and Modules 4
one spur gear, diameter of 760 mm, face width of 187 mm, and and 6. Two different expressions were derived for WPL; one from
module of 8 mm. The percentage reduction in WPL was recorded dimensional analysis and the second based on the addition of
compared to the same gear rotating in free air. The greatest reduc- power loss from the faces of the gear and teeth, which were in-
tion 共66%兲 was seen for a smooth cylindrical shroud totally en- formed correlations from the experimental data. Flanges were
closing the gear and spaced 15 mm from the tooth tips. used to block the axial inlet and outlet to the teeth for a single gear
Dawson concluded that close fitting peripheral shrouds were the of module 6, and a drop of 60% in WPL was seen, which is
most effective, although full axial shrouds were effective, but to a considerably larger than the value seen in Dawson’s work. A sec-
lesser extent. However, as this was only tested for a single gear, ond paper by Diab et al. 关29兴 extends this work to include a large
the conclusions cannot necessarily be read across other situations. diameter double-helical gear and reports on analysis based on a
Dawson ran spur gears in water as an attempt to assess what force balance 共this paper is described in more detail in Secs. 2 and
effect the fluid surrounding the gear had on windage loss. Dawson 3兲.
concluded that the power loss showed a slightly greater depen- All of the experimental studies conducted on single spur gears
dency on rotational speed 共P ⬀ N3.0兲. However, only four points have identified the requirement for shrouding of gears as a method
were plotted and are within the experimental scatter of the previ- of power loss reduction. Visualization studies have shown the im-
ous testing of the gears in air. So, the conclusions would seem portance of the fluid flow around the gears.
difficult to support based on the data.
Dawson 关25兴 also investigated the inclusion of axial holes in a 2.2 Helical Gears. Dawson 关25兴 carried out one test on a
spur gear. He took a 760 mm diameter gear, with a face width of helical gear 共30 deg helix angle兲, which showed 70% of the loss
187 mm and a module of 8 mm, and tested it for a combination of measured for an equivalent spur gear. Flow visualization using
two, four, and eight holes at diameters ranging from smoke showed that air entered the helical gear axially and radially
28 mm to 124 mm 共five tests in total兲. The holes all lie on a at one end and was pumped out at the other end tangentially/
450 mm pitch circle diameter. The small holes showed no detect- axially and tangentially/radially. Windage loss was reduced by
able increase in windage loss over the unmodified gear. However, 42% when this pumping action was interrupted by blocking both
the large holes 共⬎100 mm兲 showed significant increases leading ends of the gear teeth. Blocking only the air inlet gave a 20%
to an 82% increase for eight 124 mm holes. The increase in wind- reduction and blocking only the air exit increased losses by 15%.
age was seen to increase roughly in proportion to the number of In Dawson’s second paper 关26兴, further tests on helical gears
holes. Again, as a single gear was used for these tests, it is difficult were carried out. Dawson studied the effect of varying helix angle
to justify any conclusion other than the claim that including axial from 0 deg to 50 deg for a single helical gear of a diameter of
holes may affect WPL. 0.514 m and a face/diameter ratio of 0.364. A modified tooth
Dawson’s work 关25,26兴, while limited, was the first published number was created to account for the helix angle, n⬘, where n⬘

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 = n sec ␤. From a plot of power loss as a percentage of equivalent tooth and that closing the gear inlet end reduces windage, churn-
spur gear against helix angle, Dawson showed that power loss ing, and power usage. In terms of scavenging oil from around the
reduces with helix angle up to the 50 deg tested. gear shroud/baffle he suggested that shrouds should contain only
Handschuh and Kilmain 关30兴 investigated the efficiency of one hole, which is located within 60 deg of out-of-mesh jet and
high-speed helical gear trains experimentally. The system was which spans the entire face and ends of gear.
closed-loop torque-regenerative, consisting of a test and a slave Johnson et al. 关32兴 reported an experimental investigation for a
gearbox that were mirror images of each other. The gearboxes single bevel gear rotating in air both shrouded and unshrouded. In
consisted of an input gear, three idlers, and a bull gear. Speeds addition, the airflow supplied to the entry of the shroud cases was
were varied up to 15,000 rpm and loads up to 3.7 kW. Their con- controllable with a “free entry” 共where the air was drawn into the
clusions were as follows. shroud by the gear rotation alone兲 condition also being investi-
gated. In the shrouded case, static pressure measurements under
• “High gearing system rotational speed has a drastic effect on the shroud were taken. For a shrouded case, a reduction in wind-
the efficiency of high-speed gear trains.” age torque was seen, such that the unshrouded case had a value of
• Windage losses will dominate the performance when light 40% of the shrouded case.
loads and high speed is applied to the gear meshing system.
• When their gear system was operated in the range of 33–
100% of full load and 83–100% full speed, the losses and, 3 Modeling Gear Power Loss
thus, efficiency were significantly influenced by windage,
Few equations are available to predict the WPL of gears; all are
with windage losses being nearly equal or exceeding those
based on experimental correlations. A new modeling approach
due to meshing.
using computational fluid dynamics 共CFD兲 to predict bevel gear
Lord 关27兴 drew similar conclusions regarding the behavior of windage loss has been published recently, and this is described in
helical gears to those derived for spur gears. Again, the largest Sec. 3.1.
power loss was seen for Module 4; however, this was the largest Townsend 关2兴 reported an approximation method based on an
module tested for helical gears. Lord found, as Dawson 关25,26兴 expression empirically derived for a rotating smooth body. Effec-
did that the WPL for a helical gear was lower than for a compa- tively, each aspect of the gear is modeled separately, with a loss
rable spur gear, with the effect more dominant at higher modules. for the face 共side兲 of the gear and a loss for the edge 共teeth兲 of the
Lord concluded that the reduction in WPL was due to the air gear summed to produce an approximation of the total windage
motion around the gear teeth, with the flow into and out of spur loss. The teeth effect at the edge is accounted for by a rough
surface adjustment factor, which is a function of the diametral
teeth requiring a change in direction of 90 deg while the helical
pitch in the plane of rotation.
gear required a shallower change of direction. Hence, the energy
The power loss 共in horsepower兲 for the smooth side of gear and
required to pump through a spur gear is higher.
pinion is quoted as
Diab et al. 关29兴 studied the influence of the proximity of a
flange 共backing plate axially positioned behind the rotating gear兲
for helical gears. The influence of rotation direction was noted,
with a reduction of 38% noted for anticlockwise rotation for the
PS =
15 N
0.746 100
冉 冊冉 冊冉 冊
3
D
100
4
D
100
共2兲

best performing flange gap, while a 15% reduction was seen in the The power loss 共in horsepower兲 for the edge 共toothed side兲 is
clockwise direction. quoted as
The conclusion reached for helical gears is similar to that for
spur gears: that both shrouding and understanding the flows
around the gears are important in order to produce further effi-
PL =
15
冉 冊 冉 冊 冉 冊冉 冑 冊
N
0.746 1000
3
D
100
4
5L
100
Rf
tan ␤
共3兲

ciency gains. The term R f is the rough surface adjustment factor, L is the length
of the rotating element, and ␤ is the helix angle. The total power
2.3 Bevel Gears. Winfree 关31兴 investigated the shrouding
loss is then calculated from the sum of Ps and PL. For a double-
共baffling or containment兲 of a single spiral bevel gear. He used a
helical gear, an additional term is employed to assess the flat
15 in. gear constructed from a rigid urethane compound. The test
between the gear teeth. Townsend commented that this method
rig used a vertical rotating shaft with a gear mounted horizontally
“leaves something to be desired” in the assessment of actual
such that the gear inlet 共smaller diameter face兲 was facing toward
losses but is helpful in establishing when windage becomes an
the bottom of the testing chamber with no shaft passing through
issue for a designer.
the inlet gear face.
Dawson 关25兴 presented a preliminary formula for WPL derived
Winfree measured the difference between a single unshrouded
from his test results by treating the sides and periphery of a spur
gear and a gear with the gear teeth completely covered 共shaped
gear separately. Gear shrouding is accounted for by a scaling fac-
disk兲. The WPL dropped 共unshrouded to covered case兲 by 86% tor. The formula is only applicable to spur gears within the vari-
dry and 81% wet 共the wet condition used water to simulate the able range tested. The formula is reproduced below,
amount of lubricant applied to meshing bevel gears兲. Uncovering
the gear but leaving the tooth inlet taped 共to reduce pumping from sides periphery

tooth inlet to outlet兲 reduces the power loss to 77% for both wet P = N2.9共0.16D3.9 + D2.9F0.75M 1.15兲 ⫻ 10−20⌽␭ 共4兲
and dry cases compared to a completely free gear. Tests were then ⌽ is 1 for an oil free atmosphere, ␭ is unity for a gear in free
carried out for fully shrouded gears, with the optimum tested space, 0.6–0.7 for a gear in a large enclosure, and 0.5–0.6 for a
shroud showing a reduction of 79% for a dry condition. “fitting” gear case.
However, it should be noted that Winfree’s test conditions only In his second paper, Dawson 关26兴 rearranged this equation
matches gears where a rotating shaft is not passing through the based on further analysis and testing, and the equation is repro-
gear. In the author’s opinion, where the shaft passes through the duced below,
gear the flow direction at inlet to the teeth is not aligned to the
entry area, and hence the flow is less likely to cause the magnitude P = 1.12 ⫻ 10−8C⬘␳N2.85d4.7␯0.15␭ 共5兲
of pumping 共and therefore power losses兲 seen by Winfree. where, as before, ␭ is the effect of gear enclosure. C⬘ is obtained
Winfree 关31兴 concluded that gears traveling over 51 m / s must from Fig. 3 of Ref. 关25兴 for spur gears, although, as noted in Sec.
be shrouded; this agrees with Ref. 关2兴. He also stated that the 3.1, there is a large degree of experimental scatter within the
spiral bevel gear rotating direction has no effect on baffle design results. For helical gears, an estimate is made based on Figs. 3–5
and that bevel gears pump from the inside to the outside across the in Dawson’s second paper 关26兴.

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 Both Eqs. 共5兲 and 共6兲 are estimates of windage and are invalid data had been used to assist the expression formulation, the pre-
below Re= 104. It should also be noted that the extension of Eq. dictive capability has not been verified.
共5兲 to Eq. 共6兲 to account for the properties of the atmosphere 共i.e., Diab et al. 关28兴 used an approach that splits the contribution
density and viscosity兲 is based on only four tests where results from the gear face and teeth. The tooth analysis assumes that
show a high degree of scatter. Therefore, these correlations should frictional forces are negligible, that fluid is expelled from an ac-
only be used within the limits of the data described in Sec. 2. tive tooth area, and that the pressure over the tooth is uniform.
Barnes 关33兴 utilized the results from Dawson’s first paper 关25兴 While the hypothesis is based on the visualization work by Daw-
and developed a correlation using a dimensionless analysis. Bar- son 关25,26兴 and Akin et al. 关37兴, the assumption is that the fluid at
nes assumed that the gear windage torque 共␶兲 is a function of pitch the tip area of the gear is expelled, and this causes the moment on
diameter 共D兲, face width 共w兲, tooth height 共h兲, and fluid viscosity the gear. This is not what current research within the authors’
and density 共␮ , ␳兲. The final correlation is expressed as four di- research group has found 关38–41兴. This work is described in Sec.
mensionless groups with exponents extracted from matching 3.1.
Dawson’s data. Barnes then uses the correlation to estimate gear It is clear that all the modeling work to date is very closely
windage for his experiments. There is no independent verification allied to particular gear configurations, and this therefore makes
of the correlation. the range of validity limited. A general prediction model capable
Winfree 关31兴 reported the industry standard equation taken from of estimating windage power levels for all configurations is re-
Ref. 关34兴, compared this to the experimental values obtained from quired that can also provide insight into methods that will provide
his tests, and calculated a windage correction factor. The experi- efficiency improvement.
mental value is calculated in horsepower from
3.1 Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Gear
␯⫻i Windage Power Loss. Within the authors’ research group, mod-
P w1 = 共6兲
745.7 eling work using CFD has been carried out for spur and bevel
gears 关38–41兴. The aim is to model the losses around a single
The theoretical equation from Ref. 关34兴 is rotating gear in air in such a way as to understand the fluid motion
N3D5FW0.7 and the effect this has on losses. The commercial CFD code
P w2 = 共7兲 FLUENT1 has been used for these studies. Using CFD allows the
1017
losses due to viscous and pressure effects to be separated, and an
A windage correction factor can then be calculated by equating understanding of the role of tooth geometry and shrouding with
Pw1 and Pw2 rotational speed can be achieved. While the research is still in its
early stages, some interesting results have been obtained.
Pw1 ⫻ 1017 Farrall et al. 关38兴 modeled three cases for the flow around a
Cf = 共8兲
N3D5FW0.7 bevel gear firstly unshrouded, then unshrouded with an inlet dam
in place, and finally fully shrouded. A parallel experimental study
Winfree 关31兴 stated that designers use windage correction factors was undertaken 关32兴. The results from the computational study
from 1.03 to 10.0 and higher and that his experimental work pro- 关38兴 show that the large changes in WPL seen by Winfree 关31兴
duced correction factors from 1.25 with an optimized shroud to when changing shrouding conditions are not repeated for the con-
4.67 without any shrouding. figuration studied, with the maximum reduction of loss being cal-
Handschuh and Kilmain 关30兴 utilized both Dawson’s 关25兴 and culated as 11% for a shroud face clearance of 4 mm as compared
Townsend’s 关2兴 correlations for windage, but made no comment to an open gear case. There were significant differences between
on the accuracy of the correlations as their experiments measured the gear studied by Farrall et al. 关38兴 共module of 2.92 mm, outer
total power loss rather than isolating windage. Handschuh and radius of 133.5 mm, 91 teeth兲 and that of Winfree 关31兴 共outer
Kilmain 关30兴 pointed out the need for better prediction methods,
radius of 381 mm, 38 teeth兲 as well as the gear enclosures, which
given the high degree of efficiency loss they experienced in their
may account for the different behaviors observed.
experiments due to windage 共equal to or exceeding meshing
Rapley et al. 关39兴 extended the work of Farrall et al. 关38兴 and
losses兲.
was compared to the experimental data 关32兴. It was found for the
Heingartner and Mba 关35兴 investigated a single stage, double
unshrouded gear that although the qualitative trend could be rep-
helical, speed increasing gear unit and utilized windage, sliding,
licated, the quantitative comparison showed an under prediction
and rolling friction loss expressions by Anderson et al. 关14,36兴 to
of 25–28%. So, work will need to be done before the CFD model
model the system behavior. Losses were measured at four points
could be used as a viable design tool. However, the results for the
with varying load and a comparison to the model showed at worse
shrouded computations yielded results that were closer to the ex-
a 10% difference.
perimental results. A reasonable agreement with both experimen-
Lord 关27兴 utilized a dimensional analysis to compare power
tal torque and pressure data was obtained, and the work would
losses from spur gears from modules of 1 – 5 mm. Results were suggest that CFD is a viable tool for single phase modeling of
plotted as values of gear moment coefficient 共related to disk mo- single shrouded gears. Using the details of the flow obtained with
ment coefficient兲 against Reynolds number. In order to draw all the CFD, it is possible to change design features on shrouds and
results into one line 共similar to previous disk studies兲, three dif- see the effects on the flow field and windage torque. The work is
ferent gear moment coefficients were created for different values an ongoing investigation, with the inclusion of oil and a meshing
of module. From this, three expressions were derived for the gear marked as the next stages.
power loss due to windage. The expressions are valid for re- Rapley et al. 关40兴 and Al-Shibl et al. 关41兴 have studied the flow
stricted module ranges: Module 1, around spur gears using CFD. The published results are for a
Pw = 2.9␳␻3R3.61M 0.96F0.42 共9兲 two-dimensional computation of the flow around gear teeth, with
the contribution from the gear side calculated using a correlation
Module 1.25–4, from Townsend 关2兴. The contribution from viscous losses was
Pw = 2.9␳␻3R3.51M 1.06F0.42 共10兲 found to be small, contributing 6% to the total WPL. The contri-
butions from the pressure loss and the gear sides 共calculated from
Module 5, a correlation due to the 2D modeling assumption兲 were of com-
Pw = 2.9␳␻3R3.42M 1.16F0.42 共11兲 parable sizes. A vector plot showing secondary flow patterns seen
The predictions from these expressions were found to lie within
⫾15% of the experimental data. However, since the experimental 1
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 n ⫽ number of teeth
N ⫽ rotational speed 共rpm兲
P ⫽ WPL 共kW兲
PL ⫽ WPL due to the edge of gear alone
Ps ⫽ WPL due to the flat face of gear alone
Pw ⫽ WPL
P w1 ⫽ experimental WPL, Winfree 关31兴 共hp兲
P w2 ⫽ theoretical WPL, Winfree 关31兴 and Townsend
关2兴 共hp兲
s ⫽ axial air gap 共distance between disk and
enclosure兲
r ⫽ radius 共m兲
R ⫽ radius 共m兲
Rf ⫽ the rough surface adjustment factor
Fig. 1 Velocity vector plot taken from Ref. †41‡ showing sec- Re ⫽ Reynolds number
ondary flows within a gear tooth valley for a spur gear rotating
T ⫽ windage retarding torque 共Nm兲
at 20,000 rpm with a 1 mm peripheral shroud clearance
v ⫽ voltage 共volts兲
V ⫽ tangential velocity at tooth root 共m/s兲
␤ ⫽ helix angle 共deg兲
in a tooth valley is shown in Fig. 1: this is for a spur gear module ⌽ ⫽ effective density of air-oil atmosphere around a
of 1 mm, pressure angle of 20 deg, pitch circle diameter of gear
200 mm, and face width of 40 mm rotating at 20,000 rpm. From ␭ ⫽ function representing the degree of gear
the figure, it can be seen that the flow is trapped within the tooth enclosure
valley with recirculations formed in a similar manner to the flow ␮ ⫽ fluid viscosity
in a cavity with a moving lid. This is contrary to the hypothesis by ␳ ⫽ density
Diab et al. 关28,29兴 that the flow from a tooth is ejected radially ␻ ⫽ speed 共pps兲
outward.
␯ ⫽ kinematic viscosity 共m2 / s兲
Computations were validated against published experimental
data from Lord 关27兴, for shrouded gears of clearance of 1 mm,
5 mm, and 10 mm. For a peripheral shroud of 1 mm clearance,
the predictions lie within the experimental scatter of results, but References
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Journal of Mechanical Design MARCH 2008, Vol. 130 / 034001-5

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034001-6 / Vol. 130, MARCH 2008 Transactions of the ASME

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