A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Model for Gear Churning

This paper presents a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for predicting power losses associated with churning of oil by gears or other similar rotating components. The modeling approach and parameters are optimized to ensure the accuracy, robustness, and computational efficiency of these predictions. These studies include a look at two types of mesh and a turbulence model selection. The focus is on multiple reference frame (MRF) modeling technique for its computational efficiency advantage. Model predictions are compared to previously published experimental data [1] under varying operating conditions typical for an automotive transmission application. The model shows good agreement with the hardware both quantitatively and qualitatively, capturing the trends with speed and submersion level. The paper concludes with presenting some key lessons learned, and recommendation for future work to ultimately build a highly reliable tool as part of the virtual product development.