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Best Practices for Modelling Gearboxes using Overset Meshes

by Nipun Kuzhikattil
on 04/12/2017
1936 views
Categories: Meshing Strategies, Interfaces, Volume of Fluid (VOF), Motion   •  Products: STAR-CCM+   •  Version Applicable: N/A
  •  Article Number: 16639

Attachments: Gearbox_example2attach.7z

One of the most commonly used applications for overset meshes is oil sloshing inside gear boxes. The main reason for this is the
relative ease of setup, provided sufficient attention is given to a few key aspects. However, it must be noted that the faster, more
robust method is to use sliding meshes, by either increasing the gap between the gear shafts, or by chopping/scaling the gear teeth.
However, if the overset method is chosen for this application, then the standard guidelines for this setup are detailed below. This
article is written assuming a single gear pair for the sake of simplicity

Define the Domain


Geometry Considerations

For a gearbox containing a single gear pair i.e. 2 gears, there would be 3 regions:

1. gear 1, contained in an enveloping domain. This will be the Overset region 1


2. gear 2, contained in its own enveloping domain. This will be the Overset region 2
3. Gearbox, which will be the background region

Separation of gears – how much?


As with using sliding meshes, a slight distance between the gears is necessary when using overset gears as well.
Modelling contact between the gears using zero-gap overset is not recommended. The separation distance required is
dependent on the size of the gear teeth, the expense the user is willing to go to and the effort involved in meshing. The
lower the separation distance chosen, the more difficult the problem is. An approximate estimate could be between 50
and 100% of the gear tooth height. For spur gears, it will be on the lower side, but for bevel-pinion gears, the
separation might need to go higher.

The envelope for the gear 1 or gear 2 is created with simple cylindrical shapes. An example would be as follows:

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The hole cutting algorithm in the overset method will choose which cells are solved on, and which cells are eliminated, depending on
the overset region hierarchy. For more information on hierarchy, please see the article linked below:
https://thesteveportal.plm.automation.siemens.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/What-is-the-overset-interface-hierarchy-and-why-is-it-important

For imformation on the steps involved in the overset solution procedure, please see:
https://thesteveportal.plm.automation.siemens.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Understanding-overset-mesh-interface-options

Note: When introducing separation between the gears, it might be necessary (especially with bevel pinion gears) to change the
angular position of one of the gears (i.e. rotate about the gear rotation axis) to make sure there is a gap between the teeth all the
way along the tooth profile.
 

Mesh
Mesh Considerations

Polyhedral or trimmed mesh?

1. Either method can be used for this analysis. Trimmed meshes have the advantage of being faster to solve than
polyhedral cells, due to the relatively lower number of faces. However, extra care needs to be taken for

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generating this mesh to avoid problems such as sudden cell volume changes in areas of interest.
If done correctly, however, you can also get high quality cell size matching along the overset interface.

2. This article will describe the setup using polyhedral grids. A suitable trimmed mesh can be generated using the
controls described for the polyhedral grid
3. Prism layer settings
When using overset meshes, a minimum of 4 cells is necessary in between the gear teeth boundary and the
overset interface. When using overset grids, the driving factor for the prism layer mesher is not just the wall y+,
but also overset hole-cutting. Usually, a low stretching factor of ~1.05 to 1.1, and a total of 4 to 6 prism layer
cells can be used on the teeth. It can be quite advantageous to use the advancing layer mesher, since it gives a
good transition of prism layer cells around convex/concave corners..
4. Custom Surface and Volume Controls
There will be 2 mesh operations. The first mesh operation is for the gears, while the second operation is for the
gearbox/background. Typically, the following controls are used:
1. The first is a surface control in the mesh operation for the gears. This is created to control the sizes along
the periphery/gear teeth of the gears. Make sure the target and minimum sizes are sufficient to resolve
the profile. Also specify the prism layer settings for the teeth here. Typically, 4 to 6 layers with a low
stretching factor will be sufficient. Make sure the thickness of the layers is such that there is no significant
layer retraction at convex/concave corners.
2. The second is a volume control, and this is common to both the mesh operations. The volume control
encompasses the overset interface for both the gears. The volume control starts from a little below the
gear teeth profile, and extends upto some distance outside of the gear teeth, as shown in the picture
below.

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Section view of the volume control for one of the gears, for clarity:

This volume control is created so as to enforce roughly the same cell size for the polyhedral cells, in the
overset regions as well as in the background region. It is extremely important that the cell sizes in the
overset and background regions match each other for mass conservation.
3. The third control is a volume control that covers the region of the gearbox where the VOF solution is most
important. This control is used as refinement outside the volume control from step (2).This is beneficial to
avoid smearing of the VOF surface. Multiple such overlapping control volumes can be used to control the
refinement away from the gears, based on how much computational expense is acceptable to the user.
4. Note that the size specified in the controls for steps (2) and (3) has a bearing on the timestep you use as
well – typically with a first order time marching scheme with VOF, you want the timestep to be such that
the gears don’t rotate more than half the cell width along this periphery per timestep.
5. Make sure the volume controls created in step (2) are also used in the volume meshing of the
background region. This is necessary to enforce cell size matching from the overset to the background
mesh. Cell size matching at the overset interface is the single most important factor to ensure mass
conservation.

Visualization of overset errors –


Once the mesh has been generated, the first step is to run the simulation with only the motion solver. Freeze all of the
solvers except the Implicit Unsteady, Rigid Body Motion, Load Balancing and Partitioning solvers. This step is

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necessary to ensure that the hole cutting does not fail at any point during the run. Make sure you run it for atleast one
rotation of each gear. Ideally, run it for a duration such that all possible mesh configurations are tested. i.e. for a gear
ration of 2:3, you would ideally want to run the hole cutting test for 6 revolutions. Set the number of inner iterations
equal to 1 to run this faster.
If you encounter any hole cutting errors, the first step is to visualize the cells where the error is encountered and then
take appropriate steps. Please refer to the articles below for further details.
https://thesteveportal.plm.automation.siemens.com/articles/en_US/Video/How-to-debug-an-overset-mesh-error
https://thesteveportal.plm.automation.siemens.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Overset-mesh-error-Found-Acceptors-in-Region-with-zero
https://thesteveportal.plm.automation.siemens.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/What-is-close-proximity-option-related-to-overset-mesh-in

Set the Physics


Physical Properties

The models chosen in the physics continuum are the same models one would usually choose for any VOF sloshing
case. A typical setup would include the following models:

a. Three Dimensional
b. Implicit Unsteady
c. Eulerian Multiphase
d. Volume of Fluid (VOF)
e. Turbulent
f. Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes
g. K-Epsilon Turbulence
h. Exact Wall Distance
i. Cell Quality Remediation
j. Gravity

The VOF Waves model can also be chosen, to help initialize the domain. A couple of points that one needs to be mindful of:

Make sure the gravity vector (under Reference Values) is pointed in the correct direction
If using VOF-Waves, make sure the density of heavier/lighter fluids for the Flat VOF-wave match the densities of the fluids
being simulated

In most gearbox sloshing applications, surface tension is usually not that important and is therefore excluded.
Domain and Boundary Conditions

The first step is to create the overset interfaces for the 3 regions. In this case, there are 2 gears and 1 gearcase, i.e. 3 overlapping
regions. As a result, 3 overset interfaces need to be created:

1. Overset1 - between gear 1 and gear 2


2. Overset2 - between gear1 and gearcase(background)
3. Overset3 - between gear2 and gearcase(background)

To create each overset interface, multi-select any 2 regions at a time, right click and choose --> create overset interface. It does not
matter in which order the overset interfaces are created. However, the order in which the regions are selected during the creation of
each overset interface does matter in the hierarchy assigned to each interface. In general, the hierarchy should not matter for these

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cases. But it can be useful while troubleshooting overset hole cutting errors.
See the following knowledgebase article for more details:
https://thesteveportal.plm.automation.siemens.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/What-is-the-overset-interface-hierarchy-and-why-is-it-important

For each overset interface, the following settings are used:

alternate hole-cutting
interpolation option - linear

Note that in setups where there are overlapping overset regions, the alternate hole cutting approach is used in the code by default.
The alternate hole-cutting method is more robust when running a simulation in parallel.
The linear interpolation method is more accurate than the other methods, but is slightly more expensive. If there aren't enough cells
for linear interpolation, the method will default to the other less accurate methods.
Depending on other hole cutting errors, it might be necessary to turn on close proximity as well. Refer to the section on Meshing for
further details.
 

Run
Initial Conditions

In general this physics setup is quite robust, without having to take care of special initial conditions.
The initial conditions for VOF and pressure can be set using the VOF Waves model. See the article below for more
details on how to initialize the solution domain for VOF:
https://thesteveportal.plm.automation.siemens.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/What-is-the-best-way-to-initialize-VOF-simulations

A good practice to follow is to set the rotation rate for the gears using a ramping function. A sudden, high value for rotation may
cause problems in convergence during the initial few timesteps, while also being a physically unrealistic initial speed profile. A
typical linear ramp over the first 0.001 seconds could be set using a scalar field function:
Name: gear1_speed
Definition: ${Time}<0.001?<rotation speed>*${Time}/0.001:<rotation speed>
where
<rotation speed> is the final speed of the gear

The rotation speed of the second gear can then be set using a second scalar field function:

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Name: gear2_speed
Definition: ${gear1_speed}*<gear ratio>
Analysis Controls

The timestep for this kind of analysis is a very important parameter. It has implications for the mass conservation,solution accuracy
and overset errors. Typically, the timestep chosen is such that the rotation of the gears is not more than half the cell width along the
periphery of the overset interface.
Overset interpolation occurs along the cells at the overset interface. The half cell-width choice for the timestep means that the cell
along the periphery does not move more than half it's own length along the circumferential direction.
The second implication is for the VOF solver. A requirement for the accuracy of VOF is that the Courant Friedrich Lowry (CFL)
number at the volume-fraction-interface does not exceed 0.5 for 1st order temporal schemes, and 0.25 for 2nd order temporal
schemes. Usually, the first order temporal scheme is enough for getting sufficiently accurate engineering results.
Typically, this method would be set using a parameter like degrees of rotation:

1. Measure the average length of the cell along the overset interface (cl) for the smaller gear
2. Calculate the circumference of the overset interface cylinder (cf)
3. Then calculate cl/cf*360 - this will be the angle in degrees subtended by each cell at the centre of the cylinder. This would
typically be of the order of 0.2 degrees
4. Create a new scalar field function, $degperdt, defined as <0.2 deg>
5. Create a new scalar field function called as ${pi}, defined as 4*atan(1)
6. Assume that the speed of rotation of the smaller gear is 500 rpm. Then, create a scalar field function for the speed of rotation
of the smaller gear ${gear1_speed}, defined as ${Time}<0.001?500*${pi}/30*${Time}/0.001:500*${pi}/30
7. The ${pi}/30 multiplier is necessary to convert 500 rpm to rad/s
8. Then the timestep can be defined as a scalar field function, ${dt}, defined as alternatevalue($degperdt/${gear1_speed}
,1e-5)

Make sure that there is consistency in the units.


 

Analyze
Post-Processing

The most important factor that needs to be monitored is the conservation of mass of oil/coolant. Overset method is not conservative
by design; therefore extra care needs to be taken while setting up an analysis using this method.
Create a vector field function called ${Oil_mass}, defined as: ${Volume}*${Densityoil}, assuming the eulerian phases are air and oil.
Then, Create a sum report for this function. Add all 3 regions to this report. Create monitor and plot for this report. Monitor this report
with iteration, so that the conservation per timestep can be observed.
Also create other reports of physical quantities that are of interest. This could include pressure at specific locations/max. pressure in
each region, mass flow through certain sections etc. Make sure atleast one of these quantities are being monitored with respect to
iteration (the default is w.r.t. timestep). This will help in deciding the number of iterations required to converge every timestep. If the
quantities are not reaching an asymptote per timestep, then it is necessary to increase the number of inner iterations.

Another report that could be of interest is the drag torque value. Use the Moment report to monitor the torque on the surfaces of the
gears/shafts etc.
Note: The simulation of gears in CFD codes includes quite a few assumptions. For example, The actual contact between the gears

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is never modelled; a very small separation is introduced between the gears. The pumping action on the fluid between the gear teeth
is not captured. The method therefore will not provide accurate absolute numbers for the drag torque. However, it can predict trends
when the underlying parameters are sufficiently changed. For example, it will reflect a change in the oil level in the gearbox.

Performance
Performance Considerations

Use of double precision:


Using double precision can help with mass conservation in overset cases. However, this analysis is quite expensive and requires
significant computational resources. The use of double precision will increase this expense.

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