Determination of oil distribution and churning power loss of gearboxes by finite volume CFD method

CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) methods offer a very flexible way to investigate the oil distribution and the churning power losses, with almost no restrictions on the housing shape and operating conditions. In this paper, a CFD model based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM) is built to investigate the oil distribution and the churning losses inside a single-stage gearbox of the FZG back-to-back efficiency gear test rig. Thereby, a three-dimensional finite volume simulation model considering two-phase flow is applied. The results are compared with measurements of the churning losses and with high-speed camera recordings. The comparisons show very good agreement and high potential for predicting the oil distribution and the churning losses in modern transmission systems.