A simulation model to comparative analysis the effect of texture bottom shape on wear and lubrication performances for micro-groove water lubricated bearings

Abstract

The novelty of this paper is to explore the role of the texture bottom shape on the transient wear performance under mixed lubrication condition using a numerical model. In the numerical model, the transient interaction between the effects of wear and mixed lubrication are analyzed by incorporating the wear depth distribution into the equation of lubrication gap in each time step. A validating experiment is performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the numerical model. The wear and lubrication performances of bearings with five bottom shapes, i.e., semi ellipse, rectangle, isosceles triangle, left triangle and right triangle, are evaluated comparatively. Additionally, the effects of operating time, operating conditions (linear speed and external load) and some input parameters on tribological performances at different bottom shapes are discussed. The simulation results reveal that the texture bottom shape has significant effect on transient wear performance, thereinto, the groove with left triangle bottom shape obtain optimal transient wear and lubrication performances compared with the other four bottom shapes. The frictional behaviors of water lubricated bearing’s contacting surface would be improved by optimizing the texture’s internal structural shape especially under severe wear operating condition.

Effects of manufacturing errors and micro-groove surfaces on the static and dynamic characteristics of water-lubricated bearings

“…It can be found that the wall slip improved the bearing capacity of the micro-groove bearings with three partial distributions. Subsequently, Jin et al [40] evaluated the tribological properties of bearings, and compared the effect of the bottom profiles of the micro-groove on the wear of bearings. Cai et al [41] compared the impact of cavitation on the performance of different micro-groove bearings for Reynolds boundary condition and mass conservation boundary condition, and found that cavitation stabilized journal motion and enhanced the hydrodynamic effect for micro-groove bearings.…”

Numerical study on transient mixed lubrication response for multiple grooves water-lubricated bearings under non-linear shock with 3D thermal effect

“…Recently, the hydrodynamic/mixed lubrication performances of water-lubricated bearings have been attracted increasing attentions [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Bai et al [1] studied the relationship between the hydrodynamic pressure and the load capacity of the water-lubricated bearing under different radial clearances.…”

“…This study mainly focused on the hydrodynamic performance, however, the asperity contact is prone to occur in water-lubricated bearing [3][4][5]. Subsequently, Jin et al [6] incorporated the transient asperity contact and sliding wear into the hydrodynamic model of the microgroove water-lubricated bearing. They found that texture bottom shape significantly affected the mixed lubrication and wear predictions.…”

“…To overcome the shortcoming of the above studies [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], the tribo-dynamic model of water-lubricated bearings under external excitations, including the unbalanced force, propeller disturbance, dynamic load, stochastic shock etc. Pai et al [10] coupled the Reynolds equation and rotor dynamic equation to study the transient hydrodynamic lubrication and journal orbit of multiple(three) grooves water-lubricated bearings subjected to directional/unidirectional external load.…”

Study of the friction and wear of dimple textured surfaces based on mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication

“…In addition, a mixed lubrication model was established by Zhang et al [30] to study the tribology behaviors of a surface texture. Recently, Jin et al [31] explored the effect of texture bottom shapes on the wear and lubrication performances of water lubricated bearings. Moreover, the experimental and theoretical results of references [32][33][34] further revealed the relationship between surface texture and friction and wear.…”