In the last decade, computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools have become a determinant factor in the analysis of engineering problems. In fact, they bring a clear reduction of time in the design phase of a new product thanks to parametrical studies based on virtual prototypes. The application of such tools to gearboxes allowed engineers to study the efficiency and lubrication inside transmissions. However, the difficulties of handling the computational domain are still a concern for complex system configurations. For this reason, the authors maintain that it is fundamental to introduce time efficient algorithms that enable the effective study of any kind of gear, e.g., helical and bevel configurations. In this work, a new mesh handling strategy specifically suited for this kind of studies is presented. The methodology is based on the Global Remeshing Approach with Mesh Clustering (GRAMC) process that drastically reduces the simulation time by minimizing the effort for updating the grids. This procedure was tested on spur, helical, and bevel gears, thus demonstrating the flexibility of the approach. The comparison with experimentally measured power losses highlighted the good accuracy of the strategy. The algorithm was implemented in the opensource software OpenFOAM®.

中文翻译：

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齿轮箱的 CFD 模拟：实现网格聚类算法，以有效模拟复杂系统的架构

在过去十年中，计算机辅助工程 (CAE) 工具已成为分析工程问题的决定性因素。事实上，由于基于虚拟原型的参数化研究，它们明显减少了新产品设计阶段的时间。将此类工具应用于变速箱使工程师能够研究变速箱内部的效率和润滑。然而，处理计算域的困难仍然是复杂系统配置的一个问题。出于这个原因，作者认为引入时间高效算法能够有效研究任何类型的齿轮（例如，螺旋和斜面配置）至关重要。在这项工作中，提出了一种专门适用于此类研究的新网格处理策略。该方法基于具有网格聚类 (GRAMC) 过程的全局重新网格划分方法，该过程通过最大限度地减少更新网格的工作来显着减少模拟时间。该程序在正齿轮、斜齿轮和锥齿轮上进行了测试，从而证明了该方法的灵活性。与实验测量的功率损耗的比较突出了该策略的良好准确性。该算法是在开源软件 OpenFOAM® 中实现的。