DIFFERENT MODES OF GEAR FAILURE

PRESENTED BY
AKASH SHARMA
2018JIT2316

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. DEFINITION OF GEAR
2. CLASSIFICATION OF GEAR
3. MODES OF GEAR FAILURE
4. GEAR FAULT ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES

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 1. DEFINITION OF GEAR
• Gears are toothed members which transmit power/motion
between two shafts by meshing without any slip
• Hence, gear drives are also called positive drives. In any
pair of gears, the smaller one is called pinion and the
larger one is called gear
• When pinion is the driver, is results in step down drive in
which the output speed decreases and the toque increases.
On the other hand when thee gear is the driver it results in
steep up drive in which the output speed increase and the
torque decreases.

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2. CLASSIFICATION OF GEARS

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3.

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 4. SCORING

• Scoring is due to combination of two distinct activities

• Firstly, lubrication failure in the contact region and second,
establishment of metal to metal contact.
• Later on ,welding and tearing action resulting from metallic
contact removes the metal rapidly and continuously .
• It is classified into initial, moderate and destructive.

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 a. INITIAL SCORING

• It occurs at high spots left by previous machining.

• Lubrication failure at these spots leads to initial scoring or
scuffing.
• It has corrective action associated with it.

Fig 1: Initial Scoring

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 b. MODERATE SCORING

• After initial scoring, if the load, speed or oil temperature

increases, the scoring will spread over to a large area .
• The scoring progresses a tolerable rate this is called
moderate scoring.

Fig 2: Moderate Scoring

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 c. DESTRUCTIVE SCORING

• After the initial scoring if the load, speed, oil temperature

increases appreciably then severe scoring sets in
• Scoring is normally predominant over the pitch line
region since EHD lubrication is the least at that region

Fig 3: Destructive Scoring

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 4. WEAR
• It is nothing but progressive removal of metal from the
surface. Consequently tooth thins down and gets
weakened .
• Wear is classified as
1. Adhesive
2. Abrasive
3. Corrosive

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 a. ADHESIVE WEAR

• Mild/polishing Wear.
• Moderate Adhesive Wear.

Fig 4 : Polishing Wear Fig 5 : Moderate Adhesive Wear

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 b. ABRASIVE WEAR

1. Mild Abrasion
2. Severe abrasion

Fig 6 : Mild Abrasion Fig 7 : Severe Abrasion

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 5. PITTING OF GEARS
• Pitting is a surface fatigue failure of the gear
tooth. It occurs due to repeated loading of tooth surface
• Contact stress exceeding the surface fatigue strength of
the material.
• Material in the fatigue region gets removed and a pit is
formed.
• There are two types of pitting
1. Initial
2. Progressive/ destructive.

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 a. INITIAL PITTING

• Initial pitting occurs during running-in period wherein

oversized peaks on the surface get dislodged and small
pits of 25 to 50 μm deep are formed just below pitch line
region.
• Later on, the load gets distributed over a larger surface
area and the stress comes down which may stop the
progress of pitting.

Fig 8 : Pits on Teeth

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 b. PROGRESSIVE PITTING

• During initial pitting, if the loads are high and the

corrective action of initial pitting is unable to suppress the
pitting progress, then destructive pitting sets in.
• Pitting spreads all over the tooth length and leads to
higher pressure on the unpitted surface, squeezing the
lubricant into the pits and finally to seizing of surfaces.

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 Fig 9 : Whole Tooth Destroyed by Extensive Pitting

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 6. TOOTH BREAKAGE
• Tooth fracture is the most dangerous kind of gear failure
and leads to disablement of the drive and damage of
other components (shafts, bearings, etc.) by pieces of the
broken teeth.
• Cracks are usually formed at the root of the teeth on the
side of the stretched fibers where the highest tensile
stresses occur together with local stresses due to the shape
of the teeth
• Fracture occurs mainly at a cross section through the root
of the teeth

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• To prevent tooth breakage, the beam strength of the gear
teeth is checked by calculations.
• It can occur due to three factors:
1. Tooth fracture due to Bending Fatigue
2. Tooth fracture due to low Cycle Fatigue( Overload).
3. Tooth fracture due to high cycle fatigue

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Fig 10 : Root Crack Fig 11 :Tooth Breakage

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 7. CORROSIVE WEAR
• This is the deterioration of surface due to chemical action.
• It is often caused by active ingredients in the lubricating
oil, such as acid, moisture and EP additives.

Fig 12: Corrosive Wear

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 8. GEAR NOISE
• The Gear noise arises at the contact point due to error in
tooth profile, surface roughness, impact of tooth, sliding
and rolling friction, churning of the lubricant etc.

• The principal methods of reducing noise are:

1. Improving the tooth finishing operations
2. Changing over to helical gearing
3. Increasing the contact ratio.

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 9. FLAKING/ SPALLING
• In surface-hardened gears, the variable stresses in the
underlying layer may lead to surface fatigue and result in
flaking (spalling) of material from the surface.

Fig 13: Flaking

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 10. PLASTIC FLOW- COLD FLOW
• Plastic flow of tooth surface results when it is subjected to
high contact stress under rolling cum sliding action
• Surface deformation takes place due to yielding of surface
or subsurface material.
• Normally it occurs in softer gear materials. But it can
occur even in heavily loaded case hardened gears

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 Fig 14: Plastic Flow

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 11. RIDGING
• This is the formation of deep ridges by plastic flow of
surface and subsurface material.
• It shows definite peaks and valleys across the tooth
surface in the direction of sliding.

Fig 15: Ridging

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12. GEAR FAULT DETECTION
TECHNIQUES
• When a fault affecting one or more gear teeth develops on
a gear, the performance of the gear system deteriorates and
desired motion transfer deviates from the intended.
• Therefore it is necessary to detect any detect at early
stage.
• There are a number of techniques available for this as
under :
1. Visual inspection
2. Magnetic Particle Inspection
3. Dye penetrant testing
4. Acoustic Emission Testing
5. Vibration Signature Analysis.
6. Wear and Debris analysis.
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13. VIBRATION SIGNATURE ANALYSIS

• Vibration signature analysis is one of the most important

condition monitoring techniques that are applied in real
life.
• Most of the defects encountered in the rotating
machinery give rise to a distinct vibration pattern
( signature).
• Comparison of the vibration spectra of new equipment
versus equipment that has been used will provide the
information and make a decision whether maintainance is
required or not.

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Fig 16: Schematic of Vibration Signature Analysis of Gear System
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 ACOUSTIC EMISSION TESTING
• Gears generate noise which has a Gear Mesh Frequency
as a main component.
• Defect in a Gear result in increase in noise level at this
frequency.
• So the noise spectrum shows peaks corresponding to the
Gear Mesh Frequency.

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INSTRUMENTS USED :

1) Gear Test Rig

2) Power Supply
3) FFT Analyser
4) Microphone with Pre-Amplifier
5) Acoustic Calibrator

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• Formula Used :

NPTP = NGTG
GMF (Hz) = (shaft speed × No of gear teeth) ÷ 60
Side bands = GMF ± Shaft frequency
We have : TP = 15 , TG = 16 , NP = 2013 rpm
dB = 20log10(P/Po)
where Po = 20μPa is taken as reference pressure

• Calculation and Observation:

GMF = 503.25 Hz
Side band = 469.7 Hz, 536.8 Hz

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 QUESTIONS
1. Gears are called as______ drives because they transmit
motion _______ slip
2. When Pinion is driver, output speed _____ and
torque ______
3. In tooth breakage, cracks usually occur at the _____ of
the teeth.
4. Corrosion of Gears occur mainly due to ?
5. Write the formula for Gear Mesh Frequency .

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 ANSWERS
1. Positive, without
2. Decreases, Increases
3. Root
4. Chemical action by oil and Additives
5. GMF (Hz) = ( Shaft Speed* No of gear teeth) ÷ 60

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 REFERENCES
• https://nptel.ac.in/courses/112106137/pdf/2_
6.pdf
• http://inpressco.com/category/ijcet/
• www.google.com/search?q=classification+of+
gears&source=lnms&tbm

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 Thank You

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