A parametric study of oil-jet lubrication in gear wheels

Abstract: A parametric study of oil-jet lubrication in gear wheels is conducted using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to study the effect of the different design parameters on the cooling performance in a gearbox. Flow in oil jet lubrication is found to be complex with the formation of oil ligaments and droplets. Various hole radii of 1.5, 2 and 2.5 mm along with five oil velocities is analyzed and it is found that at lower volumetric rates, velocity has more effect on the cooling and at higher volumetric rates, hole size has more effect on the cooling. At higher velocities, the heat transfer is much greater than the actual heat production in the gear wheel, hence these velocity ratios are considered less suitable for jet lubrication. At low velocity ratios of below 2, the oil doesn’t fully impinge the gear bottom land and the sides leading to low cooling. Based on the cooling, impingement length and amount of oil lost to the casing surface, 2 mm hole with a velocity ratio of 2.225 is selected for a successful oil jet lubrication. Varying the inlet position in X, Y and Z directions (horizontal, vertical and lateral respectively) is found to have no improvement on the cooling. Making the oil jet hit the gear wheel surface at an angle is found to increase the cooling. Analysis with the use of a pipe to supply oil was conducted with circular and square inlet and it was found that the heat transfer decreases in both cases due to the splitting of oil jet caused by the combination of the effects of high pressure from the pipe and vorticity in the air field. A method has been developed for two gear analysis using overset meshes which can be used for further studies of jet lubrication in multi-gear systems. Single inlet is found to be better for cooling two gear wheels as it would require a reduced volumetric flow rate compared to double inlets. Oil system requirements for jet lubrication was studied and it was concluded that larger pumps have to be used to provide the high volumetric rates and highly pressurized oil required. On comparing the experimental losses from dip lubrication and the analytical losses for jet lubrication, dip lubrication is found to have lesser loses and more suitable for this case. Good quality lubrication would reduce the fuel consumption and also increase the longevity of gearboxes and hence more research into analyzing alternate lubrication systems can be carried out using the results from this thesis.