Abstract
In order to investigate the application of a damping alloy to gears, a damping alloy spur gear was compared with a thermally refined chromium molybdenum steel spur gear in term of their fatigue strength and dynamic performance. The fatigue test was performed using a power circulating type gear testing machine. The failure mode of the damping alloy gear was the tooth breakage at the tooth fillet and the plastic deformation on the tooth flank, and that of the steel gear was the pitting. The fatigue limit of the damping alloy gear was higher than that of the steel gear. In the wavelet maps of both the vibration acceleration of the gear box and the sound pressure near the gear box, the frequency range of high wavelet intensity of the damping alloy gear was smaller than that of the steel gear. Consequently, it was clear that the damping characteristic of the damping alloy gear was superior to that of the steel gear. Therefore, it coud be said that a damping alloy can be applied to gears under low load operating condition in this experimental range.
