The study on abrasive wear of grooved journal bearings

By valleys in surfaces especially in groove shape the wear debris or contaminants may be removed from the contact zones of mating surfaces. The geometry and dimensions of grooves are the important factors that influence on bearings performance. Grooves on the journal bearing surfaces may cause the decrease in the load carrying capacity. To find the appropriate geometry of the groove two criterion were taken into account: the minimum wear intensity and acceptable level of the load carrying capacity. In the article the results of abrasive test in artificially dustiness conditions of journal bearings with varied geometry of spiral groove on the shaft surface are presented. Most of examined series exhibited better abrasive wear resistance in comparison to plain journal bearings. The numerical calculations of journal bearings operating in clean oil were done with ANSYS Fluent application. The load carrying capacity of all simulated grooved journal bearings was lower than that of plain bearings. The least decrease of 9.4% was found for bearing with the highest groove lead H=20 mm and the smallest groove cross-section area Sf=0.016 mm2. Optimal grooved journal bearing with the minimum wear intensity had lower load carrying capacity comparing to plain variant of 17.9%. Wear mechanism of tested surfaces were analyzed.