• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.69-77
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• 2015

Recently, there have been reports of severe symptoms of wear in bearings due to foreign substances mixed in lubricants. Therefore, studying the effects of foreign substances (such as combustion products and metallic debris) on the wear characteristics of journal bearings and proposing appropriate management standards for lubricant cleanliness have become necessary. Studies on the effect of particle size and concentration of foreign substances on surface damage have actively progressed in the recent times. These studies indicate the possibility of foreign substances causing direct wear of bearing surfaces. However, experiments conducted until now involve only basic tests such as the Pin-on-Disk test instead of those involving real bearing systems. This study experimentally examines the damage to the surface of a journal bearing due to foreign substances (combustion products and alumina) mixed with the lubricant, as well as the effect of the type and size of particles on its wear characteristics. The study uses an experimental journal bearing similar to a real bearing system for conducting the lubrication test. Hydrodynamic Lubrication (HL) numerical analysis, experiment results, and film parameters are used for calculating the operating conditions required for achieving the desired film thickness, and the results of the analysis are modified for considering the surface roughness. The run-time of the experiment is 10 min including the stabilization process. The experiment results show that alumina particles larger than the minimum film thickness cause significant surface damage.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제35권2호
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• pp.123-131
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• 2019

This study characterizes the coastdown performances of two small electric motors supported on high-speed ball bearings (BBs) and gas foil bearings (GFBs), and it predicts their acceleration performances. The two motors have identical permanent magnetic rotors and mating stators. However, the shaft of the GFBs has a larger mass and polar/transverse moments of inertia than that of the BBs. Motor coastdown tests demonstrate that the rotor speed decreases linearly with the BBs and nonlinearly with the GFBs. A simple model for the BBs predicts a constant drag torque and linear decay of speed with time. The test data validate the model predictions. For the GFBs, the hydrodynamic lubrication model predictions reveal that the drag torque increases linearly with speed, and the speed decreases exponentially with time. The predictions agree very well with the test data in the speed range of 100-30 krpm. The boundary lubrication model predicts a constant drag torque and linear decay of speed with time. The predictions agree well with the test data below 15 krpm. Mixed lubrication occurs in the speed range of 30-15 krpm. Rotor acceleration performances are predicted based on the characteristics of deceleration performances. The GFBs require more time to reach 100,000 krpm than the BBs because of their larger shaft polar moment of inertia. However, predictions for the assumed identical polar moment of inertia reveal that the GFBs have a nearly identical acceleration performance to that of the BBs with a motor torque greater than $0.03N{\cdot}m$.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.47-55
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• 2012

Generally, to product multi-grade oil like engine oil, a sort of mineral base oil is mixed with a fundamental additive package liquid and a polymer liquid as viscosity index improver in order to improve the lubricating property of base oil. That is, engine oil is the mixture of more than two fluids. Specially, a polymeric type liquid cannot be seen as the linear viscosity like Newtonian fluids. In this research, by using the governing equation describing non-Newtonian hydrodynamic lubrication related with the mixture of incompressible fluids based on the principle of continuum mechanics, it will be compared the bearing performance between the mixture of each liquid to be blended and multi-grade engine oil as a single fluid in a high speed hydrodynamic journal bearing. Further, it is to be found the way estimating the performance of the blended multi-grade engine lubricant in a journal bearing in advance before blending by using the physical properties of mineral base oil, fundamental additive liquid and polymer liquid of viscosity index improver. So, it can be reduced the number of trial and error to get the wanted lubricant by selecting the proper volume fraction of each liquid to satisfy the expected performance and estimating in advance the performance of various multi-grade oils before blending. Therefore, it can be shorten the developing time and saved the developing cost.