In this master's thesis, we analyzed the thermomechanical behaviour of a polymer gear tooth, in which the tooth was modeled as a cantilever beam with variable geometry along its length. The mathematical model includes three main mechanisms of mechanical energy dissipation: friction, viscoelastic dissipation, and dissipation due to elastic deformations. The bending of the tooth was calculated using Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam theories, which allowed us to evaluate the influence of shear deformation on the thermomechanical response. An important characteristic of polymer materials—the temperature dependence of mechanical properties—was also included into the model. In the study, we compared the contributions of individual heat sources and analyzed the influence of various loading conditions on the thermal and mechanical response of the tooth. The analysis showed that friction is the predominant source of heat generation, and that shear deformations significantly affect the mechanical, but not the thermal, response of the tooth.
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