Abstract This paper investigates the wear and failure mechanisms in poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) nanocomposite gear pairs. An image-based technique was employed to measure the gear tooth wear. Image acquisition process was further used to identify tooth wear patterns and explore gear failure mechanisms. Gear test results revealed that the inclusion of nanofillers increased the load-bearing capacity and wear resistance. Gear failure mode was altered from thermal tooth deflection for PBT to dominant crack-induced tooth fracture for the nanocomposites. Morphology analysis of the worn teeth indicated the transition of wear mechanism from adhesive for pure PBT to abrasive type with the inclusion of nanofillers. Furthermore, the strain field on the gear teeth was analyzed by applying digital image correlation (DIC) technique.

中文翻译：

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聚对苯二甲酸丁二醇酯纳米复合正齿轮失效磨损分析

摘要 本文研究了聚对苯二甲酸丁二醇酯 (PBT) 纳米复合齿轮副的磨损和失效机制。采用基于图像的技术来测量齿轮齿磨损。图像采集过程进一步用于识别牙齿磨损模式并探索齿轮故障机制。齿轮测试结果表明，纳米填料的加入提高了承载能力和耐磨性。齿轮失效模式从 PBT 的热齿偏转转变为纳米复合材料的主要裂纹引起的齿断裂。磨损牙齿的形态分析表明，磨损机制从纯 PBT 的粘合剂转变为包含纳米填料的磨料类型。此外，通过应用数字图像相关（DIC）技术分析了齿轮齿上的应变场。