Numerical Wear Analysis of a PLA-Made Spur Gear Pair as a Function of Friction Coefficient and Temperature

Polylactic acid (PLA)-made machine elements exhibit easy machining, biodegradability, and excellent mechanical properties. However, enhancing their wear resistance is still a crucial engineering point, which may be achieved by altering (lowering) their coefficient of friction (CoF). Therefore, the first aim of this paper is to analyze how wear is affected by the alteration of CoF. The second aim is connected to the fact that PLA is sensitive to heat, which also limits its applicability. Accordingly, the next goal is to explore the effect of temperature on wear propagation. This study answers these questions by means of multibody dynamics simulations of a PLA-made spur gear pair. Simulations were carried out under constant torque, while the CoF and the temperature were varied in a normal operation domain (CoF: 0.1–0.05, T = 20–30 °C). The results showed that the wear volume gradually began to decline at approximately 0.085 CoF, whilst convergence to steady-state wear could be observed at 0.05 CoF. In conclusion, alteration of the CoF can lower wear by 35%, in this specific domain, while even a 5 °C rise in temperature causes 40% wear progression. The feasibility of the numerical procedure was validated by comparing numerically and experimentally obtained wear–torque results.