Abstract
An experimental and theoretical investigation was carried out to investigate the relationship between wear of bearing liners and low shaft speed, contamination, oil temperature, bearing load and time. Experimentally, it was found that oil with no external debris added produced only slight polishing of the liners. When the oil was contaminated with 0.02 wt.% iron or quartz particles of a known distribution (less than 32 μm diameter), increased wear was detected. Also, comparison of the results of the clean and iron-contaminated tests with those for quartz-contaminated oil show that the character of the worn liner area has changed from evenly rubbed zones to equally divided polished stripes in the circumferential direction. During the tests, the bearing friction was measured. In no test did the friction rise drastically, as would have been the case if severe wear and scoring had appeared. In actual applications, though, this sometimes occurs. This may be explained by severe contamination in industrial lubricating systems, with larger particles and higher debris concentration. A clean lubricating system is thus crucial in order to avoid heavy wear at low speeds. The experimental results were then compared with those indicated theoretically for film thickness at low speed. The theoretical minimum film thickness at low speed was much smaller than the size of the debris. The results indicate that if So −1⩽340, B D ⩾0.73 and C⩾0.18 mm, no severe wear will occur.
Published Version
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