Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SLIDING BEARINGS
(Fundamente de tribologie. Lagre cu alunecare)
1. Tribology Basics
Tribology is an interdisciplinary branch of science, dealing with study of friction, wear and
lubrication phenomena.
1.1. Friction
The friction is defined as the interaction of a moving object with another object or with the
environment, getting to energy development. The friction force is the resistance appearing in the
friction joint, opposing to the movement or even to the tendency of movement. The mechanical work
of the friction force turns, mostly, into heat, a small part being involved in the wear process of the
friction surfaces, by pulling out particles from surfaces.
As a technical phenomenon, friction appears both as a desired phenomenon (walking, vehicle
traction, brakes, clutches etc.) but mainly as an undesired phenomenon, getting to: decrease of the
mechanical efficiency; local heating and thermal dilatation; wear of surfaces etc.
Friction can be classified according to several criteria:
motion conditions
static friction: there is only a movement tendency;
kinetic friction: there is a relative movement between the parts.
Static friction forces are higher (even double) than the kinetic friction forces.
type of the relative motion
sliding motion
rolling motion
lubricating conditions
absolute dry friction (frecare riguros uscat)
technical dry friction (frecare tehnic uscat)
boundary friction (frecare limit sau semiuscat)
fluid friction (frecare fluid)
semifluid friction (frecare mixt).
Absolute dry friction can be achieved only in vacuum conditions, without any lubricating
environment (not even air) on the friction surfaces. Can
be achieved only in laboratory environment, vacuum
devices or interplanetary space equipments.
Technical dry friction is relative frequent in
nature and technique, when the friction surfaces are not
lubricated. This type of friction allows the presence of air
or other gaseous environment. The irregularities of the
surfaces are mating together creating points of molecular
adhesion (welding points) (fig. 1). The friction forces are
given by the shearing strength of the welding points. Due
Fig.1
to this fact, technical dry friction is characterized by high
friction coefficients and also important abrasive wear. In the case of the technical dry friction, the dry
friction laws are applied (friction force is proportional with the normal force; friction coefficient ,
only depends of the two materials involved and doesnt depend on the size of the friction surfaces).
Fig. 2
pm h
where is the dynamic viscosity of the lubricant; u relative
velocity; pm medium pressure; h thickness of the lubricating
film.
Semifluid friction appears when different areas of the
friction surfaces have different lubricating conditions (fig. 4).
Fig. 4
This is the case of very thin lubricant films or very high
roughness of the surfaces. The friction forces are determined same as for dry friction case.
1.3. Lubricants
The lubricant is, generally, the third element of the friction joint placed between the friction
surfaces. It can be naturally placed (air, moisture, oxides etc.) or, mostly, artificialy, in order to
diminish the friction.
Lubricants have different state of aggregation, mostly used being mineral oils (uleiurile
minerale) and lubricating greases cosmolines (unsorile consistente vaseline).
Mineral oils are made through refining lubricating parts of petrol, adding 220% additives in
order to improve the quality.
The main properties of the mineral lubricating oils are:
dynamic viscosity is the property that defines the value of the internal frictions between
the layers of lubricant; measured in Pa.s (Pascal.secund).
kinematic viscosity is determined with relation , where is the oil density;
measured in cSt (centiStokes), or m2/s = 10-6 cSt
relative viscosity is the ratio between the viscosity of the fluid and the viscosity of a
reference fluid (usually, 20C water); measured in E (grade Engler) can be determined as a
ratio between the return times flowing times (timpii de scurgere) of the same quantity of
oil and 20C water.
Viscosity of mineral oils drops very fast with the temperature and has a slow rise with the
pressure. In order to keep the mineral oil viscosity in a certain range, special additives are used.
unctuosity lubricating capacity (onctuozitatea) is the property of the lubricants to develop
boundary layers (absorption or chemisorption layers) strongly staying (ancorate) on the
friction surfaces, allowing a boundary friction even when the lubricant is removed.
detergency (detergena) is the capacity of the lubricant to clean the lubricated surfaces.
Lubricating greases are dispersions of metallic soaps in mineral or syntetic oils. Soaps are
mainly developed from grease acids and metals (calcium, natrium, litium). The lubricating grease is
characterized by a flowing point (prag de curgere) value of the tangential stress at which the grease
starts to flow. For smaller values of the tangential stress, the lubricating grease has a solid state giving
the possibility to create areas of static lubricating grease. Thanks to that quality, lubricating grease are
used not only for diminishing friction but also to give corrosion protection to surfaces and for sealing.
Crosshead
Bearing sleeve
Journal
Fig. 6
The bearing sleeve is usually part of the hub, being blocked against rotation and axial shifting.
The crosshead (patina) looks like a shoulder and is part of the shaft.
bearing sleeve integrated with the hub, the antifriction material being casting to the hub;
antifriction bearing sleeve assembled on the hub;
multi-layer sleeve casting or plated (turnate sau placate) one being the support and the
other being the antifriction material;
journal covered with antifriction material rarely used.
Antifriction materials must accomplish few conditions:
high wear resistance;
small friction coefficient, in order to decrease friction loss;
must allow local plastic deformations (conformabilitate);
high pitting strength;
seising (gripare) strength;
high heat conductivity;
small thermal dilatation coefficient;
adhesion with the lubricant;
corrosion strength.
The main antifriction materials are presented as follows.
Metalic materials include ferrous materials, non-ferrous materials and sintered (sinterizate)
materials.
The most used ferrous materials are cast irons (fonte) gray (cenuie) Fc, nodular (cu grafit
nodular) Fgn, malleable white (maleabil alb) Fma, charcoal (manganoase) Fmn used for sleeves
made of one part or multilayered, as the support. Cast iron sleeves are made from castings.
Non-ferrous materials are bronzes CuSn, CuPbSn, CuPb, AlSn, AlPb, AlCuPb alloys used
for one part or multilayered sleeves. Cupper (Cu) alloys are used as antifriction casting layer for
multilayered sleeves and alluminium (Al) alloys are used as antifriction plated layer for multilayered
sleeves.
Sintered materials can be mild (moi) or hard (dure). Mild sintered materials based on FeCu,
CuPb, AlCuPb alloys are used for massive porous sleeves and also for multilayered self lubricated
sleeves. Hard sintered materials are based on metallic carbides (carburi metalice) with Li, Ca, Fe,
Mg, Si are used for gaseous bearings.
Non-metallic materials used for bearing sleeves are:
wood oak (stejar) pressed and impregnated;
plastic materials with self lubricating quality, for massive sleeves;
rubber;
mineral carbon (grafit);
fine ceramics (ceramic fin) for massive sleeves;
precious stones for fine mechanics;
Composite materials: metallic support from steel strip (band de oel) and antifriction sintered
layer made of bronze and solid lubricant (mineral carbon).
Fig. 7
The cap bearing is sectioned with a diametral plane separating the body from the cap. For a
good positioning of the two parts, the contact surface has a shoulder or centering pins are used. These
elements discherge the bolts from transversal loads. The advantages of this construction are: easy
mounting, possibility of clearance adjustment. The main disadvantages are: constructive complexity
and lower rigidity. The sleeve is usually made of two parts. A cap bearing with a one part sleeve is
shown in fig. 8.
Fig. 8
One part bearing
One part bearing is much simpler and has a higher rigidity. Mounting process is a little
difficult, because it must be done from axial direction. The sleeve is always a one part sleeve.
Bearing sleeves
Bearing sleeve constructions are different considering the number of parts (one part single, or
two parts (semicuzinei)), the location of the oil groove (canalul pentru ungere) and hub fixing. In
order to bring the lubricant from the exterior of the sleeve (from the oil drain (priza de lubrifiant) from
the body) to the interior, there is a transversal hole (oil hole) in the sleeve. In order to spread the
lubricant along the sleeve, an axial socket (buzunra) is placed at the interior of the sleeve.
-6-
In the case of one part sleeves (tip buc) the socket is placed on the oil hole, usually placed at
the oil drain on the upper side of the bearing (fig. 9).
In the case of two part sleeves (fig. 10), the socket is placed at the separating plane of the
sleeve. There are several solution for bringing the lubricant at the interior of the sleeve:
Exterior recess (groove) when the oil hole is placed in the separating plane;
Interior recess (groove) when the oil hole is placed at the oil drain from the body.
In order to fix the sleeves on the hub, shoulders (praguri), cams (pinteni) or fixing pins can be used.
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
-7-
Fig. 13
-8-
The lubricant layer in contact with the sleeve is resting, while the lubricant layer in contact with
the journal has its peripheral velocity.
On the lower side of the bearing, the lubricant is forced to move from the large space (with low
pressure) to the tight space (with high pressure) creating the lifting power of the journal. On the upper
side of the bearing, the journal is carrying an amount of lubricant from the tight space (with high
pressure) to the large space (with low pressure), continuously supplying the bearing with the Qr flow.
The journal has an eccentric position toward the sleeve, creating a convergent shape of the
clearance. There is a minimum thickness of lubricant hm, and the pressure has a maximum near the
point of minimum thickness.
On the axial plane, pressure distribution is parabolic due to lubricant leaking Q at the
extremities of the bearing.
e
Fig. 14
-9-
Fig. 16
- 10 -
Hydro-Dynamic
Bearings
(Lagre
axiale
Fig. 17
In order to develop the conditions for hydro-dynamic lubrication, the most used solution is the
subdivision (sectorizare) of the friction surface of the chair (different shape sectors - fig. 17, e) and
creating the lifting effect by:
sectors embossing (profilarea sectoarelor), fig. 17, b;
mobility of the sectors floating (oscilante) (fig. 17, c) or with elastic support (fig. 17, d).
Constructive solutions are also presented in fig. 18.
Fig. 18
Figure 19 shows the construction of an axial hydro-dynamic bearing taking the axial forces in
both directions.
- 11 -
Fig. 19
In order to prevent the rotation of the
chair, the solution presented in fig. 19 uses
fixing pins and the solution from fig. 20 uses a
blocking cam (pinten de blocare). The
subdividing of the friction surface is made with
the oiling grooves.
simplified sealing;
Fig. 21
A special solution is using sleeves made of plastic materials with mineral carbon (grafit)
insertion reinforcements (elemente de armare) (glass fiber, fabric cloth (esturi textile) etc.).
d
Fig. 22
- 13 -
D
non-uniformity of pressure distribution.
Wear calculus (Calculul la uzare (la durabilitate)) starts from the calculus relation of the
volume of material loss by wear
Vu K Fr l ,
where K is a proportionality coefficient and l is the running space in relative motion between journal
and sleeve, established with relation l uLh (u relative velocity; Lh running time). Introducing
relation Fr B D pm , the volume of material loss by wear is
Vu K B D pm u Lh K * pm u ,
where K * K B D Lh .
For an acceptable wear Vu and a certain imposed running time Lh an admissible value of the
product ( pm u ) is imposed, wear (durability) checking being performed with relation
pm u ( pm u) a .
The admissible value ( pm u ) a depends on the material of the sleeve and the importance of the
bearing.
Thermal calculus (Calculul termic) is starting fron the global equation of conservation of
energy
PF = PQ,
where:
area of the bearing body through which the heat transfer is made, t bearing temperature, t0
environment temperature).
The thermal calculus is consisted of the determination of the bearing temperature that must be
limited to the admissible temperature ta depending on the sleeve material
F u
t t0 r ta .
kA
Sometimes, wear calculus is equivalent with the thermal calculus because the product ( pm u )
includes the power loss by friction, which will be limited to maximum admissible values.
- 14 -