Effect of Lubricant Starvation on the Tribo-Dynamic Behavior of Linear Roller Guideway

This paper presents an experimentally validated numerical approach linear roller guideways considering coupled vertical and horizontal (feed) motions and taking into account lubricant starvation. The inlet starvation is considered by incorporating potential flow method. Results show that starvation has pronounced effect on the lubricant film thickness, friction, and applied load on contact by up to 32%. Localised pressure values may vary by up to 100%. The severity of starvation effect is frequency dependent. It is also revealed that the starvation effect can be controlled by the amount of preload on linear guideway.

Comparison between Synthetic Oil Lubricants for Reducing Fretting Degradation in Lightly Loaded Gold-Plated Contacts

This paper presents a comparison between the performances of two chemistries of synthetic oil lubricants, polyalphaolefins (PAOs) and perfluoropolyethers (PFPEs) when applied on gold-plated electrical contacts operating at contact loads of 9.8 cN and experiencing fretting-induced degradation. Performance assessment was done using the contact resistance and coefficient of friction behavior and the surface’s response to fretting in the presence of different types of lubricants within the two chemistries. It was found that the PAOs improved the fretting performance of the lightly loaded contacts, and statistically, were at least fifty times more reliable for a longer duration of fretting cycles than the PFPEs, suggesting their suitability for low contact load applications. At low loads, PFPEs underwent contact separation due to hydrodynamic lubrication, and the behavior was more observable among the PFPEs having higher kinematic viscosities. On the contrary, viscous PAOs had improved fretting performance and delayed time to contact failure than less viscous PAOs. The applied lubricant film thickness also contributed to the contact’s performance, and it was found that increasing the thickness of the PFPE films advanced contact failures, while the PAO film postponed contact’s time to failure.

Influence of Roller-End Axial Profiling Type on Lubrication Performance in Thermal Elastohydrodynamic Finite Line Contacts

This study presents a finite-element-based numerical investigation of the influence of roller-end axial profiling type on the lubrication performance of thermal elastohydrodynamic finite line contacts. Performance is evaluated with respect to the reference case of straight rollers. The two most commonly used profiling types (i.e., dub-off and logarithmic) are compared under similar profiling length and height. It is found that a logarithmic profile outperforms a dub-off one by all accounts (i.e., frictional dissipation, lubricant film thickness, pressure buildup, and temperature rise), unless an extremely steep logarithmic shape is adopted. In the latter case, lubricant film thickness and pressure buildup may end up being negatively affected.

On the behavior of a ferrofluid-lubricated herringbone-grooved hybrid slot-entry bearing

The behavior of a slot-entry hybrid herringbone-grooved journal-bearing system lubricated with a ferrofluid lubricant has been numerically studied. The modified Reynolds equation of a ferrofluid bearing model based on the Stokes micro-continuum theory has been numerically solved by a finite-element method. A MATLAB code based on the Gauss–Seidel iteration scheme has been solved to numerically simulate the bearing performance. The simulated results reveal that the use of a ferrofluid lubricant provides enhanced values of lubricant film thickness, fluid film stiffness/damping coefficient, and better stability threshold speed.

Experimental Measurement of the Time-Based Development of Oil Film Thickness, Lubricating Film Extent and Lubricant Transport in Crosshead Engines

This paper describes the design of a test apparatus which simulates the lubrication of large, slow, two-stroke marine engines in which the ring pack is lubricated by means of injectors supplying lubricant above the piston. The equipment is able to control lubricant injection parameters (volume, frequency, etc.) and employs capacitance based lubricant film thickness transducers to allow instantaneous oil film thickness and film extent around the compression ring to be investigated on a stroke-by-stroke basis. It is demonstrated that the equipment can be used to study the development of lubricating films on successive strokes under differing injection strategies. Time varying changes in lubricating film thickness and film extent have been measured and the rate at which the lubricant spreads across the cylinder wall has also been investigated. It has been observed that increases in oil-film thickness are strongly linked to the transition from starved to fully-flooded inlet conditions and that net lubricant transport rates along different parts of the cylinder can be evaluated from measured data.

Grease film thickness measurement in rolling bearing contacts

Rolling bearings are the second most used machine components. They work in what it is called elastohydrodynamic lubrication regime. The geometry of rolling element bearings makes the direct measurement of the lubricant film thickness a challenging task. Optical interferometry is widely used in laboratory conditions for studying elastohydrodynamic lubrication however it cannot be used directly in rolling element bearings thus the only suitable methods are electrical techniques. Of these, film thickness measurement based on electrical capacitance of the contacts has been used in the past by a number of authors. One of the limitations of the capacitance method, when used in rolling bearings, is that it cannot distinguish between the contacts of every rolling element and raceway on one hand and on the other between the inner and outer ring contacts. In the present study the authors used an original test rig which can measure the film thickness for only one ball and separately for the inner and outer rings of a radial ball bearing. This paper thus shows for the first-time results of the lubricant film thickness, at the inner and outer raceways, in grease lubricated rolling bearings.

The Effect of Texture Floor Profile on the Lubricant Film Thickness in a Textured Hard-On-Soft Bearing With Relevance to Prosthetic Hip Implants

Polyethylene wear debris limits the longevity of prosthetic hip implants. We design a pattern of axisymmetric texture features to increase hydrodynamic pressure and lubricant film thickness and, thus, reduce solid-on-solid contact, friction, and wear in hard-on-soft prosthetic hip implant bearings. Specifically, we study the effect of the texture floor profile on the lubricant film thickness using a soft elastohydrodynamic lubrication model. We compute the optimum texture parameters that maximize the lubricant film thickness for different texture floor profiles, as a function of bearing operating conditions. Flat texture floor profiles create thicker lubricant films than sloped or curved texture floor profiles for their respective optimum texture design parameters. We find that the texture feature volume is the most important parameter in terms of maximizing the lubricant film thickness, because a linear relationship exists between the texture feature volume with optimum texture parameters and the corresponding optimum lubricant film thickness, independent of the texture floor profile.