Due to the urgent requirement of modern gear drives with high load capacity

long service life and high reliability

the gear tooth surface contact behaviour and contact fatigue behaviour are studied thoroughly. An advanced numerical model of gear contact is proposed in which the non- Newtonian lubricant

the tooth crowning modification

the variation of the gear geometry parameters

the working conditions as well as the tooth surface coating are taken into account. The effect of those factors on tooth surface contact pressure

tooth friction

film thickness and the stress of the substrate can be studied based upon this model. The proposed numerical model can not only provide a technical support for the developing of domestic design softwares of gear drives

but also it can be used for the improvement of the service lives and the reliabilities of gears after the validation with experimental results.