On the determination of the bending fatigue strength in and above the very high cycle fatigue regime of shot-peened gears

Demands on modern gearboxes are constantly increasing, for example to comply with lightweight design goals or new CO₂ thresholds. Normally, to increase performance requires making gearboxes and powertrains more robust. However, this increases the weight of a standard gearbox. The two trends therefore seem contradictory. To satisfy both of these goals, gears in gearboxes can be shot-peened to introduce high compressive residual stresses and improve their bending fatigue strength. To determine a gear’s tooth root bending fatigue strength, experiments are conducted up to a defined number of load cycles in the high cycle fatigue range. However, investigations of shot-peened gears have revealed tooth root fracture damage initiated at non-metallic inclusions in and above the very high cycle fatigue range. This means that a further reduction in bending load carrying capacity has to be expected at higher load cycles, something which is not covered under current standard testing conditions. The question is whether there is a significant decrease in the bending load carrying capacity and, also, if pulsating tests conducted at higher load cycles—or even tests on the FZG back-to-back test rig—are necessary to determine a proper endurance fatigue limit for shot-peened gears. This paper examines these questions.

     

Untersuchungen zur Dauerfestigkeit carbonitrierter Proben aus den Einsatzstählen 18CrNiMo7‐6und 20MnCr5

The endurance limit of carbonitrided specimens of 18CrNiMo7‐6 and 20MnCr5 case hardening steels were examined under bending conditions. Four variants were manufactured differing in heat treatment and surface conditions. Besides conventional gas carburised variants, carbonitrided specimens with a low and a raised nitrogen content of 0.2 and 0.45% at the surface as well as a carbonitrided and ground variant were examined. The specimens were tested with stress ratios R = –1 and 0. Depending on the nitrogen content cyclic loading evokes compressive residual stresses at the specimens' surfaces, caused by elastic‐plastic deformation. Specimens of the ground variant show additionally a decrease of the residual austenite content when cycled. The induced compressive residual stresses are substantially responsible for high endurance limits at both stress ratios and are the key for understanding the beneficial effect of carbonitriding in this regard.     

Parking lock integration for electric axle drives by multi-objective design optimization

Due to safety considerations, electric axle drives (e-drives) are often equipped with a parking lock system, which prevents vehicle movement while parking in redundancy with the parking brake. In order to integrate the parking lock into the e‑drive, various mounting positions inside the e‑drive are eligible, which have a direct influence on the e‑drive packaging. Furthermore, engaging the parking lock may happen at small vehicle velocities and while driving downhill, leading to high loads on the e‑drive components. These loads depend on the mounting position of the parking lock and have to be considered in the design phase to prevent failure of the system. That way, the designs of shafts, gear wheels and bearings of the gearbox are affected by the parking lock integration. A suboptimally integrated parking lock system can thus lead to undesirably high costs and reduced energy efficiency of the entire e‑drive—all alongside the packaging aspect. Consequently, finding the best suitable parking lock integration for a certain e‑drive is a complex task for the design engineers. To reduce the level of problem complexity, an established computer-based system design method for e‑drives by means of a multi-objective optimization is extended to be capable of considering the parking lock integration. The proposed method is applied to a case study and the impact of the parking lock on the optimality of an exemplary e‑drive system is shown.

     

Fatigue properties of two case hardening steels after carburization

Fatigue properties of two case hardening steels after carburization have been investigated by means of rotating bending fatigue tests and rolling contact fatigue tests. Results show that the steel with higher Al and N contents has higher rotating bending fatigue limit and rolling contact fatigue limit, increasing from 865 to 950 MPa and from 3575 to 3725 MPa, respectively. It is also shown that the steel with higher Al and N contents has finer prior austenite grain sizes and higher hardness in the carburized case. Scanning electron micrographic observations on the fractured surface of specimens for rotating bending fatigue tests show that fatigue crack usually initiated from oxide inclusions and propagated along prior austenite grain boundaries, indicating that the finer grain size and higher hardness in the carburized case of the steel with higher Al and N contents can contribute to its higher fatigue properties.     

Development of a wind turbine gearbox virtual load sensor using multibody simulation and artificial neural networks

A current development trend in wind energy is characterized by the installation of wind turbines (WT) with increasing rated power output. Higher towers and larger rotor diameters increase rated power leading to an intensification of the load situation on the drive train and the main gearbox. However, current main gearbox condition monitoring systems (CMS) do not record the 6‑degree of freedom (6-DOF) input loads to the transmission as it is too expensive. Therefore, this investigation aims to present an approach to develop and validate a low-cost virtual sensor for measuring the input loads of a WT main gearbox. A prototype of the virtual sensor system was developed in a virtual environment using a multi-body simulation (MBS) model of a WT drivetrain and artificial neural network (ANN) models. Simulated wind fields according to IEC 61400‑1 covering a variety of wind speeds were generated and applied to a MBS model of a Vestas V52 wind turbine. The turbine contains a high-speed drivetrain with 4‑points bearing suspension, a common drivetrain configuration. The simulation was used to generate time-series data of the target and input parameters for the virtual sensor algorithm, an ANN model. After the ANN was trained using the time-series data collected from the MBS, the developed virtual sensor algorithm was tested by comparing the estimated 6‑DOF transmission input loads from the ANN to the simulated 6‑DOF transmission input loads from the MBS. The results show high potential for virtual sensing 6‑DOF wind turbine transmission input loads using the presented method.

     

深冷处理对20CrMnTi钢渗碳齿轮硬度和残余奥氏体评定的影响

２０ＣｒＭｎＴｉ钢渗碳齿轮最表层硬度偏低,系残余奥氏体量过多所致。通过深冷处理可使部分残余奥氏体转变成马氏体,从而提高了表面硬度,对金相法评定残余奥氏体的局限性进行了探讨。     

Advanced method of including housing stiffness into calculation of gear systems

One of the central goals during the design of helical gear systems is the achievement of a well-distributed contact load in the gear mesh. An equal load distribution is a key factor for a high load carrying capacity, the economic use of materials and a long lifetime. Mesh misalignment can be caused by tooth deflections, manufacturing deviations or elastic deformation of the shaft-bearing system and the gearbox housing. Those deformations have to be taken into account during the design process of adequate tooth-flank geometry. Elastic deformations of gearbox housings can be significant, especially in the case of automotive applications with aluminium cases. This paper presents an advanced method of including housing stiffness into the calculation of gear systems. A validation of the approach is carried out by comparing the calculated deformations with measurements of a static test rig of a hypoid gearbox.

Many calculation programs offer the opportunity to analyse the deformation behaviour of the shaft-bearing-housing system. Most of the components in these programs are described by analytic approaches. However, components that are geometrically more complex, like the housing or planet carriers cannot be represented as easily as that by analytic expressions. There are several alternatives to take into account the elasticity of those objects. One way is to model the stiffness of the bores using imported stiffness matrices. These matrices contain the elasticity of the bores itself as well as crossover influences between the bearings. The reduced stiffness matrices may be the result of a static reduction of the geometry using the finite element method (FEM). As state of the art, the reduction is mostly carried out at the centre points of the bearing bores. The proposed advanced method uses the static reduction of geometries on several points at the bores, distributed over the circumference. This approach offers a more detailed modelling of the elastic behaviour of complex geometries within the analytic deformation calculation of gear systems. To validate the advanced approach, the calculation results of the elastic deflections of the shaft-bearing-housing system is compared with measurements of a static test rig. In the course of these comparisons, the influence of different modelling methods of gearbox housings on the accuracy of the calculation results is discussed.

     

Surface hardness improvement of plasma-sprayed AISI 316L stainless steel coating by low-temperature plasma carburizing

Low-temperature carburizing below 773 K of austenite stainless steel can produce expanded austenite, known as S-phase, where surface hardness is improved while corrosion resistance is retained. Plasma-sprayed austenitic AISI 316L stainless steel coatings were carburized at low temperatures to enhance wear resistance. Because the sprayed AISI 316L coatings include oxide layers synthesized in the air during the plasma spraying process, the oxide layers may restrict carbon diffusion. We found that the carbon content of the sprayed AISI 316L coatings by low-temperature carburizing was less than that of the AISI 316L steel plates; however, there was little difference in the thickness of the carburized layers. The Vickers hardness of the carburized AISI 316L spray coating was above 1000 HV and the amount of specific wear by dry sliding wear was improved by two orders of magnitude. We conclude that low-temperature plasma carburizing enabling the sprayed coatings to enhance the wear resistance to the level of carburized AISI 316L stainless steel plates. As for corrosion resistance in a 3.5 mass% NaCl solution, the carburized AISI 316L spray coating was slightly inferior to the as-sprayed AISI 316L coating.     

Reducing mass while improving the operational behavior: form optimization of planetary gearbox housings

The optimization of load sharing between planets is one of the most important goals in planetary gearbox design. Unevenly distributed load will cause locally higher flank pressures and therefore, less durability of gears and bearings. Furthermore, unevenly distributed or fluctuating loads can cause excitations in the gear mesh and structural vibrations. The load sharing in planetary gear stages depends on the individual stiffness conditions in each mesh position. The stiffness is not only influenced by the gear geometry but also by the surrounding structural elements like shafts, housings and torque arms. In wind industry these components are often designed very stiff in order to reduce their effect on the operational behavior.

Within this paper, a method is presented, which allows combining the structural optimization process with a tooth contact analysis for planetary gearboxes. By means of this combined approach, it is possible to optimize the housing structure of the ring gear in terms of mass reduction while keeping the operational behavior in focus. With a weighted design objective function, it is possible to decide whether the main objective should be load distribution, excitation behavior, low mass or a balanced design.

     

Comparative study on microstructures and properties of Mn-containing and Mn-free bainitic steels

ABSTRACT

The effects of Mn on the microstructure and impact-abrasion wear resistance of bainitic steel were studied. Results showed that the Mn-containing steel possessed finer microstructure and higher volume fraction of retained austenite, in comparison with the Mn-free steel. This was caused by lower transformation temperature and higher strength of undercooled austenite. The weight loss of Mn-free steel varying with the impact load was larger than that of Mn-containing steel. High strength, hardness and toughness of Mn-containing steel were conducive to improving wear resistance. More retained austenite in Mn-containing steel played an active role in work hardening and hindering crack propagation. However, the portion of retained austenite that induced martensitic transformation was the same with increasing impact-wear load.     

Emulation of grid-forming inverters using real-time PC and 4-quadrant voltage amplifier

A test bed for the evaluation of novel control methods of inverters for renewable power generation is presented. The behavior of grid-following and grid-forming control in a test scenario is studied and compared.

Using a real-time capable control platform with a cycle time of 50 µs, control methods developed with Matlab/Simulink can be implemented. For simplicity, a three-phase 4‑quadrant voltage amplifier is used instead of an inverter. Thus, the use of modulation and switched power semiconductors can be avoided. In order to show a realistic behavior of a grid-side filter, passive components can be automatically connected as L‑, LC- or LCL-filter. The test bed has a nominal active power of 43.6 kW and a nominal voltage of 400 V.

As state-of-the-art grid-following control method, a current control in the d/q-system is implemented in the test bed. A virtual synchronous machine, the Synchronverter, is used as grid-forming control method. In combination with a frequency-variable grid emulation, the behavior of both control methods is studied in the event of a load connection in an island grid environment.

     

3D modeling of subsurface fatigue crack nucleation potency of primary inclusions in heat treated and shot peened martensitic gear steels

A computational strategy is developed to characterize the driving force for fatigue crack nucleation at subsurface primary inclusions in carburized and shot peened C61^® martensitic gear steels. Experimental investigation revealed minimum fatigue strength to be controlled by subsurface fatigue crack nucleation at inclusion clusters under cyclic bending. An algorithm is presented to simulate residual stress distribution induced through the shot peening process following carburization and tempering. A methodology is developed to analyze potency of fatigue crack nucleation at subsurface inclusions. Rate-independent 3D finite element analyses are performed to evaluate plastic deformation during processing and service. The specimen is subjected to reversed bending stress cycles with R = 0.05, representative of loading on a gear tooth. The matrix is modeled as an elastic–plastic material with pure nonlinear kinematic hardening. The inclusions are modeled as isotropic, linear elastic. Idealized inclusion geometries (ellipsoidal) are considered to study the fatigue crack nucleation potency at various subsurface depths. Three distinct types of second-phase particles (perfectly bonded, partially debonded, and cracked) are analyzed. Parametric studies quantify the effects of inclusion size, orientation and clustering on subsurface crack nucleation in the high cycle fatigue (HCF) or very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) regimes. The nonlocal average values of maximum plastic shear strain amplitude and Fatemi–Socie (FS) parameter calculated in the proximity of the inclusions are considered as the primary driving force parameters for fatigue crack nucleation and microstructurally small crack growth. The simulations indicate a strong propensity for crack nucleation at subsurface depths in agreement with experiments in which fatigue cracks nucleated at inclusion clusters, still in the compressive residual stress field. It is observed that the gradient from the surface of residual stress distribution, bending stress, and carburized material properties play a pivotal role in fatigue crack nucleation and small crack growth at subsurface primary inclusions. The fatigue potency of inclusion clusters is greatly increased by prior interfacial damage during processing.     

17CrNiMo6齿轮轴断裂原因分析及改进

目的研究常用的减速机高速工作中,材料为17CrNiMo6齿轮轴断齿现象的原因以及改进措施。方法通过化学成分分析、硬度检测、显微组织分析等方法,研究分析17CrNiMo6齿轮轴断齿现象的原因,并根据产生断齿的原因提出改进措施。结果 17CrNiMo6齿轮轴断裂为疲劳断裂,断齿的主要因素为调制热处理工艺不当、非金属杂物超标产生应力集中现象等。结论通过改进热处理工艺、优化结构设计、提高加工精度等措施可改善17CrNiMo6齿轮轴的断齿现象。     

Effect of carburization on electrochemical corrosion behaviours of TiAl alloy

Electrochemical corrosion behaviours of the untreated and the carburized of Ti-46.5Al (mol %) alloy were investigated. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied to characterize the carburized layer. Potentiodynamic polarization curve, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and SEM morphology of the corroded surface were used to evaluate corrosion resistance of both carburized and untreated TiAl alloy in 1 mol/L HCl. The outer layer of the carburized TiAl alloy is a continuous Ti₂AlC scale. Polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) of the carburized TiAl alloy present a nobler corrosion potential, a more positive pitting potential and a higher polarization resistance, respectively, compared with the untreated sample. After anodic corrosion or immersion corrosion, a deposited layer can be observed on the surface of the carburized titanium aluminide alloy. By contrast, pitting and crevasse corrosion occur on the surface of the untreated TiAl alloy after anodic corrosion and some corrosion products and slight corrosion appear on the surface of the untreated TiAl alloy after immersion corrosion.     

Signal de-noising in gear pitting fault identification by an improved singular value decomposition method

Forschung im Ingenieurwesen - In this research a new method of improved singular value decomposition (ISVD) is proposed for the vibration signal de-noising of gear pitting fault...     

Influence of the grid parameters during under voltage ride through (UVRT) testing

Under-voltage ride through (UVRT) tests can be carried out on system test benches, most of them are equipped with a converter based grid simulator. This paper describes the control of the artificial grid impedance at the 4 MW test bench at CWD. Validation measurements with the commercial wind turbine E‑115 E2 show that the virtual impedance specification is sufficient to perform UVRT tests with different grid parameters. Comparative measurements between the voltage divider based FRT Container and the grid simulator with deliberately different grid parameters show a different behavior of the research wind turbine FVA nacelle. Therefore, it is recommended to perform UVRT tests on the test bench with predefined grid parameters.

     

Erweiterte Schadensanalyse von Grübchenausbrüchen an einsatzgehärteten Zahnrädern

In gear technology, especially in turbo applications, the demand on high power density is continuously growing. Apart from optimizing tooth shape, there is great potential in new materials and specifically optimized heat treatments. In this paper, contact fatigue strength of three test variants of different material or heat treatment is investigated. The highest number of load cycles was reached by a carbonitrided variant of 14NiCrMo13-4 with over 50% retained austenite. Besides the evaluation of the highest load capacity potential, the focus rests on the detailed analysis of pitting characteristics and on the comparison with local stress components. Independent on the material and heat treatment process, the pitting damage can be divided into a fatigue and a ruptured zone. Both areas can be separated by appearance as well as the depth of outbreak. The depth of the ruptured zone correlates with the maximum equivalent stress of Mises. In contrast, the depth of the fatigue zone can be explained by the time-dependent change of normal and shear principal stresses. The center of the fatigue zone is in the same depth as the overlapping direction of the maximum normal and shear principal stress. The combination of damage characteristics and the new evaluation of local stress components extends the knowledge of contact fatigue progression and provides a basis for further improvements.     

Beschichtungen für Zahnräder

Coatings for gear wheels In order to optimize the goal, steel gear wheels regarding load‐carrying capacity and wear, thin film coatings were tested. Different coating systems were examined numerically with the software ELASTICA® for their suitability. The characteristics of the coating systems were determined dependent on the material, its surface treatment as well as the diameters of relevant rolling partners. Differences were made between macroscopic rolling contacts between the teeth profiles and microscopic contacts with surface roughness and abrasion particles. First the four best suitable coating systems were deposited on simplified rollers and examined under different conditions. Two coating systems were determined, which show special suitability for the coating of the gear wheels. The first system is an a:C‐H coating with an CrN interlayer. The second system is an a:C‐H coating wtih an CrN interlayer on a plasma‐nitrided substrat (Duplex‐process). In order to protect the coatings on the teeth, their involute profile was provided with a tip relief. As gear wheel materials 16MnCr5, 42CrMo4 as well as the special steel ETG®88 were used. Two kinds of flow fats were used as lubricants and additional the unlubricated operation was examined. The gear wheels were tested at three different speeds on a test machine especially built for it. The testing routine was carried out in so‐called power‐stages. Each stage means a defined number of contacts and a certain Hertzian stress on the teeth profiles. With each stage the Hertzian stress was increased. The end of operation time is the beginning of cavitation pitting. The test results showed that in particular with the steel 16MnCr5 and 42CrMo4 the used Duplex‐systems leads to considerable increases of the load‐carrying capacity of the tooth flanks and the wear resistance. This increase was observed both with fat‐lubricated and with unlubricated gear wheels. The results for the special steel ETG®88 were less promising. An unlubricated operation could be made possible by the described coatings, which would not have been possible without the coatings. However the results are not as good as the results of uncoated gear wheels wih use of minimum fat lubrication. The reason could be an insufficient nitriding‐depth. For the selected steel the plasma‐nitriding parameters were investigated with the goal of optimized nitriding‐depth. Unfortunately up to the end of this project the gear wheels could not be treated with the optimized Duplex‐Process. At present the attempts with optimally plasma‐nitrided gear wheels are carried out. After that it would be possible to give recommendations for the plasma‐nitriding process and the necessary coating as well as the selection of the fat.     

Effect of thermal aging on pitting corrosion resistance of 16Cr – 5Ni – 1Mo precipitation hardening stainless steel

Abstract

Specimens of precipitation hardening 16-5-1 stainless steel were solution treated at 1050°C for 1 h followed by aging at temperatures in the range 400 – 750°C for various holding times (1 – 16 h). After heat treatment, two types of corrosion test (accelerated and immersion testing) were conducted in 6% ferric chloride solution. The results showed that the pitting corrosion resistance was affected by austenite content, δ ferrite and precipitation of molybdenum and chromium carbides. Three critical temperature ranges were identified, which were related to the phases formed: (a) high corrosion rate at 475°C (δ ferrite and Mo₂ C); (b) low corrosion rate at 550 – 625°C (reversed austenite and Laves phase); (c) intermediate corrosion rate at 750°C (Cr₂₃ C₆ and TiC). The morphology of the pitting was dependent on the form of the δ ferrite and carbides.     

The kinetics of low-pressure carburizing of alloy steels

In the article the author analyzed the kinetics of low-pressure carburizing of alloy steels, based on steel 16MnCr5 and CSB 50NIL. It was found that an active radical-carbon layer (carbon deposit) deposits on the surface of austenite grains or austenite and carbides during boost steps. This layer mediates in moving the carbon deeper into the austenite grains. During the diffusion steps the layer deposited on the carbide surfaces transfers into the austenite grains. Both this layer and the one previously deposited on the austenite grains surface now undergo another catalytic decomposition into atomic carbon and hydrogen, other types of radicals and fine-crystalline graphite. The resulting carbon atoms are absorbed by surface austenite grains and next diffuse deeper into the austenite grains, and, alternatively, into the carbide surface, making the carbides grow and contributing to the increase in the carburized layer thickness.