Wear models and mechanical analysis of PTFE/Kevlar fabric woven liners used in radial spherical plain bearings

PTFE/Kevlar fabric woven liner is the functional part of the spherical plain bearing. Based on the microstructure, physical wear models for the liners with different adhesive contents were established. Based on mesomechanics and volume averaging method, the elastic performances for the liners in main directions during wear process were investigated. Based on mechanics analysis method of composite materials, the liner׳s off-axis elastic constants were obtained. With FEA model established for the radial spherical plain bearing, effects of elastic constants and the wear depth of the liner on surface contact pressures were studied, respectively. Results show that wear depth can lead to bigger contact pressures and has bigger influence on the contact pressures between the liner and inner ring compared with the changed elastic constants. Accelerated life test for two bearings with different liners were carried out. Test results verify the validity of the physical wear models of the liner, and the failure mechanisms of the bearings can be well explained by FEA results. For two liners, the liner with more adhesive showed better tribological performances.