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3D Spur Gear Hardening

Induction heating is one of the milestones for the metal industry nowadays, and it has applications with no end. One of them is metal hardening. In this tutorial we will be looking into steps needed to create a simulation for the hardening of a spur gear through induction heating using CENOS platform.

We will not create the whole gear and conductor, because it is not necessary. We will only create half of the tooth of the gear and use the symmetry boundary conditions to simulate the heating for a full gear.

In the next pages a 100 ms long induction heating example of an AISI 1045 spur gear at 150 kHz and 4000 A with symmetry boundary conditions is presented.

Slice from full spur gear - coil geometry

Download the application files:

3D Spur Gear Hardening.pdf

Simulation_tutorial_3D_gearSector.zip

1. Open pre-processor

To manually create geometry and mesh, in CENOS home window click Advanced geometry editor.

Advanced geometry editor

Click Induction Heating to select physics for simulation.

Induction Heating

Click the Play icon to open Salome.

Induction Heating

Salome window with already selected Shaper module will open.

2. Create geometry and prepare it for meshing

2.1 Create a new sketch

Create a new Part by clicking the New part (NewPart) tool. A new part will be added to Object browser.

New part

Now create a new Sketch by clicking the Sketch (Sketch) icon. Select the XY plane and click Set plane view.

XY plane

Set plane view

You have now created an active sketch, in which you can start to build your geometry!

2.2. Create the base drawing

As we are creating the geometry from scratch, first we need to draw the base drawing which we will extrude to get the full 3D model of the gear.

We will draw the outline of the gear, inductor and air domains. Use the drawing and defining tools to create base from the blueprints provided here:

Tools

Tools

Blueprint

Geometry Parameters:Value:
Nb. of teeth:45
Module (mm):2.54
Pitch diameter (mm):114
Face width (mm):6
Pressure angle (mm):22 deg 30'
Coil outer diameter (mm):138
Airgap (mm):4

IMPORTANT: The drawing presented here is modified to more clearly explain the size parameters of the gear tooth half. In reality the geometry is much more thinner and longer.

2.3 Extrude the base

Click the Extrude (Extrude) tool, select the base outline parts (hold Shift to select multiple parts) and set the Extrusion height as 6.

Extrusion parameters

Extruded geometry

2.4 Create Partition and Groups

Click Partition (Partition) tool. From Object Browser select all extrusions and join them into one partition.

Partition selection

Partition window

IMPORTANT: Partition and Groups are vital for the simulation setup with CENOS, because the mesh creation as well as the physics and boundary condition definitions are based on the groups created in this part.

Click Group (Create Group) tool and select the partition we just created (Partition_1_1). Choose the Shape Type, select one or more shapes from the screen, name the group and click Apply and continue (Apply And Continue).

Create Group

For this tutorial we will create three 3D groups for domains and nine 2D groups for boundary conditions.

Detailed breakdown of these groups is as follows:

Spur gear sector groups

IMPORTANT: You can hide separate parts of the Partition to gain access to faces within it.

Hide Selected objects

2.5 Export to GEOM

Finally we need to export the geometry created in Shaper to GEOM module. Do this by clicking Export to GEOM (Export). This will export the Partition and Groups to GEOM module, which is needed to proceed with mesh creation.

3. Create mesh and export it to CENOS

3.1 Switch to Mesh module and create Mesh

Switch to the Mesh module through Mesh icon or select it from the Salome module dropdown menu.

Switch to Mesh module

In Object Browser from Geometry dropdown menu select the previously created Partition_1_1 and click Create Mesh (Create Mesh).

Partition

Create mesh

From the Assign a set of hypothesis dropdown menu select 3D: Automatic Tetrahedralization. In the Hypothesis Construction window enter 3 for Max Length.

3.2 Create a sub-mesh for the gear-air surface

We will create a mesh for the gear using 2 sub-meshes - one for the surface between gear and air domains and other for the gear itself. The sub-mesh for the surface between the gear and air domains is necessary because we want to refine the outer part of the gear to increase the quality and accuracy of the results afterwards.

Right-click on Mesh_1 and click Create Sub-Mesh or select Create Sub-mesh (Create Mesh) from the toolbar.

Select the Gear_air group from the Partition_1_1 dropdown menu as Geometry. From the Assign a set of hypothesis dropdown menu select 2D: Automatic Triangulation. In the Hypothesis Construction window enter 0.3 for Max Length.

Right-click on the sub-mesh and select Compute Sub-mesh to calculate and evaluate it.

Create sub-mesh

Surface sub-mesh

3.3 Create a sub-mesh for the gear sector

Create another sub-mesh and select the Gear group from the Partition_1_1 dropdown menu as Geometry. For 3D algorithm choose NETGEN 3D from the Algorithm dropdown menu. For 2D algorithm choose NETGEN 1D-2D from the Algorithm dropdown menu, then click the gear icon (Gear icon) next to Hypothesis and select NETGEN 2D Parameters. In Hypothesis Construction window enter 1.5 for Max. Size and click OK.

Gear Hypothesis Construction

Resolve the skin layer on the surface of the workpiece by creating Viscous Layers. Under 3D algorithm section click the gear icon (Gear icon) next to Add. Hypotheses and select Viscous Layers.

Select the Gear_air group from the Partition_1_1 dropdown menu and click Add.

Enter 0.2 for Total thickness, 8 for Number of layers, 1.6 for Stretch factor and check Faces with layers (walls) box.

IMPORTANT: You will be asked to set the mesh priority. Set it so that Gear_air sub-mesh is above Gear sub-mesh (in that way Gear_air will be calculated first).

Gear Viscous Layers Hypothesis Construction

Sub-mesh priority

3.4 Create a sub-mesh for the inductor

Create a sub-mesh and select the Inductor group from the Partition_1 dropdown menu as Geometry. From the Assign a set of hypothesis dropdown menu choose 3D: Automatic Tetrahedralization and enter 1 for Max Length.

Resolve the skin layer on the surface of the workpiece by creating Viscous Layers. Under 3D algorithm section click the gear icon (Gear icon) next to Add. Hypotheses and select Viscous Layers.

Select the Current and ground groups from the Partition_1_1 dropdown menu and click Add.

Enter 0.17 for Total thickness, 4 for Number of layers, 1.4 for Stretch factor and check Faces without layers (inlets and outlets) box.

Calculate and evaluate the inductor mesh.

Conductor Hypothesis Construction

Inductor slice sub-mesh

3.5 Calculate and export mesh to CENOS

Right-click on Mesh_1 and click Compute. Evaluate the final mesh and export it to CENOS. To do that, select Mesh_1 and select from the dropdown menu under Tools → Plugins → Mesh to CENOS to export your mesh to CENOS.

Before exporting mesh to CENOS, the Select groups window will open and you will be asked to select the groups you want to export along with the mesh.

Select all groups relevant for the physics setup, i.e. those who will be defined as the domains or boundary conditions.

Select Groups before Export to CENOS

When selected, click Send mesh to CENOS.

4. Define physics and boundary conditions

4.1 Set the units and enter the physics setup

Wait until the mesh loads (see the spinner) and select the units by clicking on the gear icon next to the pre-processing block. In this tutorial we will select millimeters (mm).

Select Mesh base units

Click the gear icon under Induction Heating block to enter the physics setup.

Choose physics

4.2 Simulation control

In the SIMULATION CONTROL window define the simulation as a slice with 4 degree Slice angle. Set Transient with 15 kHz frequency, 0.1 s End time. Check the Use adaptive time step box and for Computation algorithm choose Accurate.

Spur gear simulation global setup

4.3 Gear definition

Select GEAR from Domain bar. Leave Enable Thermal Analysis and Enable Electromagnetics boxes checked under Domain “GEAR”. Choose Conductive as the domain type. For Material click SELECT… and choose Low carbon steel 1020 linearized (H=100000), %% t^{\circ} %% depend.

Gear material

IMPORTANT: In this tutorial for every domain we will use symmetry boundary conditions such as Flux normal and Flux parallel to define the direction of magnetic field lines relative to symmetry planes.

Under THERMAL ANALYSIS for the boundary conditions choose Combined for GEAR_AIR – check the Convection and Radiation boxes and enter 1.5 for Heat Transfer Coefficient and 0.8 for Emissivity. Choose Adiabatic for the GEAR_SIDES and GEAR_NORMAL groups.

Gear Thermal analysis

Under ELECTROMAGNETICS choose Interface for GEAR_AIR, Flux parallel for GEAR_SIDES and Flux normal for GEAR_NORMAL.

Gear Electromagnetics

4.4 Inductor definition

Switch to iNDUCTOR in Domain bar. Disable Thermal analysis and select Current source as Domain type. For Material choose Copper Constant properties.

Spur gear simulation conductor setup

Under ELECTROMAGNETICS choose Current (Amplitude) for CURRENT, Ground for GROUND and Flux normal for COIL_NORMAL and enter 4000 A as Current (Amplitude).

Spur gear simulation conductor setup

4.5 Air definition

Switch to AIR in Domain bar. Disable Thermal analysis and select Non-conductive for Domain type. For Material choose Air.

Spur gear simulation air setup

Under ELECTROMAGNETICS choose Interface for GEAR_AIR, Flux parallel for AIR_SIDES, Flux normal for AIR_NORMAL and Infinity for AIR_INFINITY.

Spur gear simulation air setup

When everything is set, click RUN.

5. Evaluate results

When CENOS finishes calculation, ParaView window with the pre-set temperature result state will open automatically and you will be able to see the temperature field distribution in the gear sector in the last time step.

Temperature distribution in gear

Results can be further manipulated by using ParaView filters - find out more in CENOS advanced post-processing article.

This concludes our 3D spur gear sector induction hardening simulation tutorial. For any recommendations or questions contact our support.

← PreviousNext →
  • 1. Open pre-processor
  • 2. Create geometry and prepare it for meshing
    • 2.1 Create a new sketch
    • 2.2. Create the base drawing
    • 2.3 Extrude the base
    • 2.4 Create Partition and Groups
    • 2.5 Export to GEOM
  • 3. Create mesh and export it to CENOS
    • 3.1 Switch to Mesh module and create Mesh
    • 3.2 Create a sub-mesh for the gear-air surface
    • 3.3 Create a sub-mesh for the gear sector
    • 3.4 Create a sub-mesh for the inductor
    • 3.5 Calculate and export mesh to CENOS
  • 4. Define physics and boundary conditions
    • 4.1 Set the units and enter the physics setup
    • 4.2 Simulation control
    • 4.3 Gear definition
    • 4.4 Inductor definition
    • 4.5 Air definition
  • 5. Evaluate results
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