Heat Transfer Coefficient Distribution on Oil Injection Cooled Gears: Experimental Method, Uncertainty, and Results

Abstract To design gearboxes with very high power densities, an effective means of cooling the gears and knowledge of the achievable heat transfer coefficients are necessary. In this paper, a method to measure heat transfer coefficients for oil injection cooled gears is presented. Contrary to other experimental investigations, a single hollow spur gear is used. To measure heat transfer coefficients, a temperature gradient between the gear and the hot oil needs to be induced. This is achieved by injecting hot oil at realistic temperatures and cooling the inside diameter of the gear. This enables the measurement of heat transfer coefficients in absence of any dissipative or frictional losses, decreasing the measurement uncertainty. In addition, the novel method yields spatially resolved HTC data. The uncertainty of the method is assessed using Monte Carlo simulations. Experimental results for various operating conditions are presented. For all investigated oil flowrates, the same characteristic behavior of the average heat transfer coefficient versus rotational speed was observed. This observation can be explained by using a kinematic model of the oil jet. The geometry of the gear and the cooling arrangement and the spatially resolved HTC data presented in this paper provide a complete basis for the validation of numerical simulations.