Lubrication mechanism in gearbox of high-speed railway trains

Abstract

In this study, the moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method is employed for numerical simulation of flow field in gearbox of high-speed railway trains so as to understand the lubrication mechanism and mode in the gearbox during high-speed operation. A high-fidelity 3D model for a high-speed train gearbox under actual working conditions is created for the first time. RecurDyn and ParticleWorks co-simulation is conducted to acquire the flow field distribution in the gearbox under the coupling of multi-fields and to calculate the churning losses. Effects of key parameters including rotation speed, viscosity, and immersion depth on the churning power losses of the gearbox are investigated to determine their influences on the lubrication performance of the gearbox. Those results form a theoretical base for futuristic optimization of the high-speed train gearboxes.

Keywords

• high-speed railway train gearboxes
• mesh-free moving particle semi-implicit method
• immersion depth
• rotation speed
• lubricant viscosity
• churning power loss