Effect of vein-bionic surface textures on the tribological behavior of cylindrical roller thrust bearing under starved lubrication

Abstract

To reveal the effect of vein-bionic surface textures on the tribological behavior of cylindrical roller thrust bearings (CRTBs) under starved lubrication, six kinds of leaves (Forsythia, Clausena lansiu, Ash, Purple leaf plum, Pipal and Apricot) were chose and their simplified patterns were fabricated on the shaft washers of CRTBs using laser surface texturing. The coefficients of friction (COFs) of vein-bionic textured bearings were measured using a vertical universal wear test rig. Their mass losses and worn surfaces were also characterized. The results show that: There is important influence of the symmetry of vein-bionic textures and the number of secondary veins on the friction and wear properties of vein-bionic textured CRTBs under starved lubrication. Compared to the smooth group, the COFs and mass losses of vein-bionic textured bearings are all reduced. Among all groups, the tribological performance of bearings with a pattern inspired from Ash is the best. Its wear loss is reduced by 16.23% and its COF is reduced by 15.79%. This work would provide a valuable reference for the raceway design and optimization of roller rolling element bearings.

Tribological behavior of laser textured rolling element bearings under starved lubrication

“…pillar, dimple, groove and grid) distributed in a periodic geometry or pattern on the target surface (Koike et al , 2015; Menezes, 2016; Lu et al , 2018; Gachot et al , 2017; Uddin and Liu, 2016; Galda et al , 2019; Wang et al , 2019; Ahmadkhah and Kakaee, 2021; Gropper et al , 2018; Grützmacher et al , 2021). Meanwhile, some new textures and multi-scale surface patterns were also introduced and studied (Long et al , 2021b; Grützmacher et al , 2019).…”

Tribological behavior of pits textured multi-rollers sliding-rolling tribo-pair under periodic varied load and dry wear

“…(2) Pit units destroy the integrity of textured raceways and change the surface stress distributions of textured MRSRTs significantly. 34–36,38 Furthermore, the surface material of textured MRSRT can be regarded as numerous “micro-cantilever-beams.” 34,35 According to the theory of theoretical mechanics, the increase of the length of “micro-cantilever-beams” will significantly reduce the shear resistance of the surface material of MRSRT, especially the material around pits. (3) Due to the “local quenching effect” during laser marking process, there is a phase transformation layer around the pit unit, 34,38 which is helpful to improve the contact fatigue and thermal fatigue performance of MRSRTs, and further improve their fatigue wear resistances.…”

“…Meanwhile, owing to the obvious circumferential linear velocity difference of two ends of rollers, the thickness of nylon films along the radius direction is not uniform. [34][35][36]38 Finally, the frictional-induced heat, nylon powder as well as the system temperature gets to a dynamic balance, and the nylon films are mainly left on the outsides of raceways (see Figure 5). For the COF between nylon and is much higher than that between steel and steel, the large area uneven nylon film and the high roughness of nylon film regions (see Figures 6(a The influence of pit units on the friction and wear properties of MRSRTs under periodic varied load and dry wear can be summarized and listed as follows: (1) The pits can effectively collect and hold metal debris and nylon powder.…”

“…(2) Pit units destroy the integrity of textured raceways and change the surface stress distributions of textured MRSRTs significantly. [34][35][36]38 Furthermore, the surface material of textured MRSRT can be regarded as numerous ''micro-cantilever-beams.'' 34,35 According to the theory of theoretical mechanics, the increase of the length of ''micro-cantilever-beams'' will significantly reduce the shear resistance of the surface material of MRSRT, especially the material around pits.…”

“…The tribological properties of textured MRSRTs under dry wear can best reflect the wear resistance and friction-reduction ability of the texture itself. So, based on previous works, [33][34][35][36][37][38] considering its unique rollingsliding feature and separating structure, the shaft washer and rollers (with a nylon cage) of 81107TN bearing were used as samples and counterparts respectively, to research the influence of pit's dimensions on the tribological performance of MRSRTs under periodic varied load and dry wear. Their friction and wear performance as well as the influence mechanism of pits on the tribological behavior were compared and discussed.…”