Simulation of mild wear in boundary lubricated spherical roller thrust bearings

Abstract

Owing to the curved contact surfaces in a spherical roller thrust bearing, the rollers will undergo sliding. For an unskewed roller there will be two points along each contact where the sliding velocity is zero. At all other points along the contact, sliding is present. Under boundary lubricated conditions the sliding can give rise to mild wear. Experimental results show that this wear can cause a significant change in the surface profile outside the zero sliding points. The mild wear in the contact was simulated using Archard's wear law. An iterative wear model is described in which the normal load distribution, the tangential tractions and the sliding distances are repeatedly calculated to simulate the changes in surface geometry due to wear. Good qualitative agreement was achieved between the simulation results and the previously presented experimental results.