Reducing fuel consumption and automobile emissions are nowadays the main topics of research for the automotive industry. Therefore, the situation involves concentrating many efforts to improve gearbox efficiency. Churning losses may represent a significant source of loss among the losses generated in a gearbox. Several models have been developed to quantify churning losses but they do not consider the air present in the lubricant. The use of a specific test rig has revealed that oil aeration could have an impact on churning losses. A heuristic model estimating aeration induced losses has therefore been developed. The latter reveals that some unexpected lubricant's properties, apart from viscosity and density, may impact churning losses. Indeed, the study of churning losses also encourages learning more about this type of lubrication, widely used in manual gearboxes. There is currently a lack of information around the development of that method of lubrication. This lack of information bears mainly on the flows involved in the phenomenon of oil splashed up by the rotating gears. The analysis of the involved oil flows is carried out with a test rig designed for that purpose. Therefore, the numerous findings based on a series of measurements may help splash phenomenon to be better understood. Finally, an analytical model is proposed to help estimate the flow of oil splashed. Such model may be used for the development of gearbox lubrication.
