A computational model for analysing the tooth deflection of polymer gears is presented in this paper. Because polymer gears have less stiffness compared to metal gears, the proposed approach considers a comprehensive analysis to determine the most suitable numerical model, i.e., the number of teeth that should be modelled for a given gear’s geometry and material. The developed computational model has been evaluated using a spur gear pair, where the pinion made of POM was meshed with a support gear made of steel. Material properties were assigned with linear elastic characteristics for the gear, while the pinion was characterised by hyperelastic properties using POM material. Furthermore, a nonlubricated frictional contact between the gear and pinion was considered in the numerical computations. The computational results that were obtained were compared to the empirical results according to VDI 2736 guidelines. Here, the computational approach showed more accurate results due to the hyperelastic material characteristics of POM and the simulation of multiple teeth meshing. However, VDI 2736 calculation showed comparability with the computational results, with a slightly larger deviation at higher loads. In this respect, the proposed computational approach is more suitable for analysing the tooth deflection of polymer gears under higher loads.

This study presents a computational model to determine the wear behaviour of polymer gears. Using PrePoMax finite element numerical calculation software, a proposed computational model was built to predict dry rolling/sliding wear behaviour based on Archard’s wear model. This allows the calculation of the wear depth in each loading cycle with constant mesh updating using the finite element method. The developed computational model has been evaluated on a spur gear pair, where the pinion made of POM was meshed with a support gear made of steel. The computational results obtained were compared with the analytical results according to the VDI 2736 guidelines. Based on this comparison, it was concluded that the proposed computational model could be used to simulate the wear behaviour of contacting mechanical elements like gears, bearings, etc. The main advantage of the model, if compared to the standardised procedure according to the VDI 2736 guidelines, is the geometry updating after a chosen number of loading cycles, which enables a more accurate prediction of wear behaviour under rolling/sliding loading conditions.

A computational model for analysing the tooth deflection of polymer gears is presented in this paper. Because polymer gears have less stiffness compared to metal gears, the proposed approach considers a comprehensive analysis to determine the most suitable numerical model, i.e., the number of teeth that should be modelled. The developed computational model has been evaluated on the spur gear pair, where the pinion made of POM has meshed with a support gear made of steel. Material properties were assigned with linear elastic characteristics for the gear, while the pinion was characterised by hyperelastic properties using POM material. Furthermore, a nonlubricated frictional contact between the gear and pinion was considered in the numerical computations. The computational results that were obtained were compared to the empirical results according to VDI 2736 guidelines. Here, the computational approach showed more accurate results due to the hyperelastic material characteristics of POM. However, VDI 2736 calculation showed the comparability with computational results with a slightly larger deviation at lower loads.

This study presents the computational model to determine the wear behaviour of polymer gears. Using PrePoMax finite element numerical calculation software, a proposed computational model was built to predict wear behaviour based on Archard's wear model. This allows the calculation of the wear depth in each loading cycle with constant mesh updating. The developed computational model has been evaluated on the spur gear pair, where the pinion made of POM has meshed with a support gear made of steel. The computational results that were obtained were compared with the analytical results according to the VDI 2736 guidelines. Based on this comparison, it was concluded that the proposed computational model could be used to simulate the wear behaviour of contacting mechanical elements like gears, bearings, etc. The main advantage of the model, if compared to the standardised procedure according to the VDI 2736 guidelines, is the geometry updating after a chosen number of loading cycles, which enables a more accurate prediction of wear behaviour under rolling/sliding loading conditions.

In the presented study, an experimental procedure was developed to evaluate the influence of tooth flank wear on the noise behaviour of the POM/steel gear pair. Changes in sound pressure level were monitored as a function of the POM pinion's wear rate by measuring noise and vibration under controlled test conditions. The vibroacoustic analysis was evaluated using time-frequency analysis (TFA) and adapted transform analysis (ATA). Furthermore, the normalised spectral entropy (NSE), the normalised window spectral entropy (NWSE) and the normalised adaptive spectral entropy (NASE) were also considered when evaluating the noise behaviour of the analysed gear pair. The experimental results showed that the sound pressure level increases with increasing gear flank wear. Frequency and time–frequency analysis of the sound signals showed that the dominant frequency components correspond to the gear meshing frequency and its higher harmonics, which increase with increasing wear. Furthermore, the entropy-based indicators can also effectively characterise the dynamic behaviour of the gear system.,The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the influence of wear on the vibroacoustic response of polymer gears and provide a basis for developing diagnostic methods to detect wear conditions across different engineering applications. Future research should expand the experimental analysis to different combinations of polymer gear materials and to a wider range of operating conditions, including higher loads and different temperature regimes.

The relationship between progressive tooth-flank wear and acoustic indicators in polymer–metal gear transmissions remains insufficiently quantified. In the presented study, an experimental procedure was developed to evaluate the influence of tooth flank wear on the noise behaviour of the POM/steel gear pair. The vibroacoustic analysis was evaluated using time–frequency analysis (TFA) and adapted transform analysis (ATA). The normalised spectral entropy (NSE), the normalised window spectral entropy (NWSE) and the normalised adaptive spectral entropy (NASE) were also considered when evaluating the noise behaviour of the analysed gear pair. The experimental results showed that the sound pressure level increases with increasing gear flank wear. After the running-in phase, a strong correlation was observed between the average wear of the tooth flank and sound pressure level (R² = 0.962 for stages II–V), whereas entropy indicators showed close associations with wear. The reported entropy–wear fits yielded R² = 0.994 for NSE, 0.999 for NWSE, and 0.996 for NASE. Frequency and time–frequency analysis of the sound signals showed that the dominant frequency components correspond to the gear meshing frequency (600 Hz) and its higher harmonics, which increase with increasing wear. The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of how wear affects the vibroacoustic response of polymer gears and provide a basis for developing diagnostic methods to detect wear conditions under the investigated conditions. Future research should expand the experimental analysis to different combinations of polymer gear materials and to a wider range of operating conditions, including higher loads and different temperature regimes.