Abstract
Abstract Water-lubricated bearings with polymer bushes are steadily gaining popularity due to their advantages, including environmental friendliness, relatively simple construction and long-term operation. Nevertheless, in practice instances of damage to such bearings occur due to insufficient or absent flow of the lubricating agent. In this study, experimental tests established that elastic polymer bush bearing is capable of operating without excessive wear for a period of at least 60 minutes under conditions of marginal water flow and typical loads for stern tube journal bearings of small ships.
Highlights
Water-lubricated polymer bush bearings are increasingly popular and widely employed in shipbuilding, hydro-power plants [1,2,3], as well as in water pump shafts
Polymer bushes are relatively easy to install and, as pointed out by Ogle et al [1], the operating costs of such bearings may be lower, taking into account their lack of costs connected with oil use
As Roldo et al [4] observed, the use of polymer bushes in stern tube propeller shaft bearings may result in reducing friction loss by a factor of 6 or even 9, in comparison to white metal bush bearings
Summary
Water-lubricated polymer bush bearings are increasingly popular and widely employed in shipbuilding (as bearings of propeller shafts), hydro-power plants (guide bearings of turbine shafts) [1,2,3], as well as in water pump shafts. Because they use water as the lubricating agent, they provide the undoubted advantage of being environmentally friendly. There is no danger of contaminating the natural environment with petroleum compounds, as may be the case with oil-lubricated white metal bearings. In connection with increasingly stringent regulations on protecting the marine environment, bearings manufacturers have for a number of years proposed the comprehensive replacement of oil-lubricated bearings with water-lubricated ones, declaring their comparable hydrodynamic load capacity [5,6,7]
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