• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.597-598
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• 2010

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2010

In the last decade, laser surface texturing (LST) has emerged as a viable option of surface engineering. Many problems related with mechanical components such as thrust bearings, mechanical face seals and piston rings, etc, LST result in significant improvement in load capacity, wear resistance and reduction in friction force. It is mainly experimentally reported the micro-dimpled bearing surfaces can reduce friction force, however, precise theoretical results are not presented until now. In this paper, a commercial computational fluid dynamics(CFD) code, FLUENT is used to investigate the lubrication characteristics of a parallel thrust bearing having 3-dimensional micro-dimple. The results show that the pressure, velocity and density distributions are highly affected by the location and number of dimple. The numerical method and results can be use in design of optimum dimple characteristics, and further researches are required.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.302-307
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• 2011

Laser surface texturing (LST) methods are widely applied recently to reduce friction and improve reliability of machine components such as thrust bearings, mechanical face seals and piston rings, etc. In this paper, numerical analysis is carried out to investigate the effect of number of dimples on the lubrication characteristics of parallel thrust bearing using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT. Pressure distributions of present analysis are physically consistent than those obtained from numerical analysis of Reynolds equation. The overall lubrication characteristics are highly affected by number of dimples and their locations. The results can be use in design of optimum dimple characteristics to improve thrust bearing performance and further researches are required.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.338-343
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• 2011

Laser surface texturing (LST) methods are widely applied now to reduce friction and improve reliability of machine components such as thrust bearings, mechanical face seals and piston rings, etc. In this paper, the effect of dimple shapes on the lubrication characteristics of parallel thrust bearing are studied using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT. Pressure and streamline distributions, variations of supporting load, leakage flow rate and friction force, are compared for three different dimple sectional shapes such as circle, pyramid and rectangle type. The lubrication characteristics are highly affected by dimple shapes and number of dimples. The pyramid type dimple shape can support the highest load while the rectangle type is the best in friction reduction.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.305-310
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• 2009

Laser surface texturing (LST) methods are applied recently to generate micro-dimples in machine components having parallel sliding surfaces such as thrust bearings, mechanical face seals and piston rings, etc. And it is experimentally reported by several researchers that the micro-dimpled bearing surfaces can reduce friction force. Until now, however, theoretical results for various dimple parameters are not fully presented. In this paper, a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT is used to investigate the effect of dimple depth on the lubrication characteristics of parallel thrust bearing. The results show that the pressure, velocity and density distributions within dimples are highly affected by dimple depths and cavitation conditions. Adoption of micro-dimple on the bearing surface can reduce the friction force highly and its levels are affected by dimple depth. The numerical methods and results can be use in design of optimum dimple characteristics to improve thrust bearing performance.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.147-153
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• 2016

Friction reduction between machine components is important for improving their efficiency and lifespan. In recent years, surface texturing has received considerable attention as a viable means to enhance the efficiency and tribological performance of highly sliding mechanical components such as parallel thrust bearings, mechanical face seals, and piston rings. In this study, we perform lubrication analysis to investigate the effect of dimple shapes and orientations on the lubrication characteristics of a surface textured parallel thrust bearing. Numerical analysis involves solving the continuity and Navier-Stokes equations using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT. We use dimples consisting of hemispherical and different semiellipsoidal orientations for simulation. We compare pressure and streamline distributions, load capacity, friction force, and leakage flowrate for different numbers of dimples and orientations. We find that the dimple shapes, orientations, and their numbers starting from an inlet influence the lubrication characteristics. The results show that partial texturing of the bearing inlet region, and the ellipsoidal dimples with the major axis aligned along the lubricant flow direction exhibit the best lubrication characteristics in terms of higher load capacity and lower friction. The results can be used in the design of optimum dimple characteristics for parallel thrust bearings, for which further research is required.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.303-310
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• 2014

In order to reduce friction and improve reliability, researchers have applied various surface texturing methods to highly sliding machine elements such as mechanical seals and piston rings. Despite extensive theoretical research on surface texturing, previous numerical results are only applicable to isothermal and iso-viscous conditions. Because the lubricant flow pattern of textured bearing surfaces is much more complicated than that for non-textured bearings, the Navier?Stokes equation is more suitable than the Reynolds equation for the former. This study carries out a thermohydrodynamic (THD) lubrication analysis to investigate the lubrication characteristics of a single micro-dimpled parallel thrust bearing cell. The analysis involves using the continuity, Navier?Stokes, energy, temperature?viscosity relation, and heat conduction equations with the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT. This study discretizes these equations using the finite volume method and solves them using the SIMPLE algorithm. The results include finding the streamlines, pressure and temperature distributions, and variations in the friction force and leakage for various dimple radii and depths. Increasing the dimple radius and decreasing the depth causes a recirculation flow to form because of a strong vortex, and the oil temperature greatly increases compared with the non-textured case. The present numerical scheme and results are applicable to THD analysis of various surface-textured sliding bearings and can lead to further study.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.267-273
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• 2022

Surface texturing is the latest technology for processing grooves or dimples on the friction surface of a machine. When appropriately applied, it can reduce friction and significantly increase durability. Despite many studies over the past 20 years, most are isothermal (ISO) analyses in which the viscosity of the lubricant is constant. In practice, the viscosity changes significantly owing to the heat generated by the viscous shear of the lubricant and film-temperature boundary condition (FTBC). Although many thermohydrodynamic (THD) analyses have been performed on various sliding bearings, only few results for surface-textured bearings have been reported. This study investigates the effects of the FTBC and groove number on the THD lubrication characteristics of a surface-textured parallel thrust bearing with multiple rectangular grooves. The continuity, Navier-Stokes, and energy equations with temperature-viscosity-density relations are numerically analyzed using a commercial computational fluid dynamics code, FLUENT. The results show the pressure and temperature distributions, variations of load-carrying capacity (LCC), and friction force with four FTBCs. The FTBCs greatly influence the lubrication characteristics of surface-textured parallel thrust bearings. A groove number that maximizes the LCC exists, which depends on the FTBC. ISO analysis overestimates the LCC but underestimates friction reduction. Additional analysis of various temperature boundary conditions is required for practical applications.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2023

Surface texturing is widely applied to friction surfaces of various machine elements. Most of the theoretical studies have focused on isothermal (ISO) analyses which consider constant lubricant viscosity. However, there have been limited studies on the effect of oil temperature increase owing to viscous shear. Following the first part of the present study that investigated the effects of film-temperature boundary condition (FTBC) and groove number on the thermohydrodynamic (THD) lubrication characteristics of a surface-textured parallel thrust bearing with multiple rectangular grooves, this study focuses on the effect of groove depths. Current study numerically analyzes the continuity, Navier-Stokes, and energy equations with temperature-viscosity-density relations using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, FLUENT. The results of variation in temperature, velocity, and pressure distributions as well as load-carrying capacity (LCC) and friction force indicate that groove depth and FTBC significantly influence the temperature distribution and pressure generation. The LCC is maximum near the groove depth at which the vortex starts, smaller than the ISO result. For intense grooves, the LCC of THD may be larger than that from ISO. The frictional force decreases as the groove becomes deeper, and decreases more significantly in the case of THD. The study shows that groove depth significantly influences the THD lubrication characteristics of surface-textured parallel thrust bearings.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.134-141
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• 2000

The real area of contacts, average film thickness, mean real pressure, and mean hydrodynamic pressure are investigated numerically in this study, especially for the parallel thrust bearing. Model surface is generated numerically with given autocorrelation function and some surface profile parameters. Then the average Reynolds equation contained flow factors and contact factor is applied to predict the effects of surface roughness in mixed lubrication regimes. In this equation, flow factors are defined as correction terms to smooth out high frequency surface roughness and contact factor is introduced to relieve from obtaining the average film thickness. Therefore the computation time to obtain h can be reduced.