• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• 제17권11호
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• pp.1704-1713
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• 2003

Point contact film thickness in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) is analyzed by image processing method for the images from an optical interferometer with monochromatic incident light. Interference between the reflected lights both on half mirror Cr coating of glass disk and on super finished ball makes circular fringes depending on the contact conditions such as sliding velocity, applied load, viscosity-pressure characteristics and viscosity of lubricant under ambient pressure. In this situation the film thickness is regarded as the difference of optical paths between those reflected lights, which make dark and bright fringes with monochromatic incident light. The film thickness is computed by numbering the dark and bright fringe orders and the intensity (gray scale image) in each fringe regime is mapped to the corresponding film thickness. In this work, we developed a measuring technique for EHL film thickness by dividing the image patterns into two typical types under the condition of monochromatic incident light. During the image processing, the captured image is converted into digitally formatted data over the contact area without any loss of the image information of interferogram and it is also interpreted with consistency regardless of the observer's experimental experience. It is expected that the developed image processing method will provide a valuable basis to develop the image processing technique for color fringes, which is generally used for the measurement of relatively thin films in higher resolution.

• 한국소음진동공학회논문집
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• 제24권8호
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• pp.643-650
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• 2014

Gear transmission system is widely applied in engineering. As the problem of contact fatigue, wear, lubrication failure etc, the condition of gear teeth contacts will be worse. The vibration and sound signals in the gear system will be affected by the some failures like scuffing, abrasive wear and spalling due to the deterioration of gear teeth surface. By studying the estimation of specific film thickness, measurement of reduction in tooth thickness, visual examination of wear mechanisms on the gear teeth and their effects on the statistical parameters of vibration and sound signals, the research obtained the satisfactory results on accessing the surface fatigue wear in a spur gear system. The paper utilizes the relationship between statistical parameters obtained from sound signals and Stribeck curve to confirm the hypothesis of dependency of surface fatigue wear, specific film thickness.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.248-256
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• 1999

Many tribological components in automobile engine undergo high load and sliding speed with thin film thickness. The lubrication characteristics of the components are regarded as ether hydrodynamic lubrication or boundary lubrication, whereas in a working cycle they actually have both characteristics. Many modem engine lubricants have various additives for better performance which make boundary film formation even under hydrodynamic lubrication regime. Conventional Reynolds equation with the viewpoints of continuum mechanics concerns only bulk viscosity of lubricant, which means that its simulation does not give insights on boundary lubrication characteristics. However, many additives of modern engine lubricant provide mixed modes of boundary lubrication characteristics and hydrodynamic lubrication. Especially, high molecular weight polymeric viscosity index improvers form boundary film on the solid surface and cause non-Newtonian fluid effect of shear thinning. This study has performed the investigation about journal bearing system with the mixed concepts of boundary lubrication and hydrodynamic lubrication which happen concurrently in many engine components under the condition of viscosity index improver added.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.39-45
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• 1998

Reynolds equation, which describes behavior of fluid film in journal bearings, basically satisfies mass conservation. But, boundary conditions usually used with this equation, e.g. half Sommerfeld or Reynolds boundary conditions, cannot fulfill this natural law of conservation. In the case of connecting rod bearing, where applied load is dynamic and its magnitude is relatively large, such unrealistic boundary conditions have serious influence on calculation results, especially on lubricant flow rate or power disspation which are important parameters in thermal analysis. In this paper, mass-conserving boundary condition was applied in the finite element analysis of connecting rod bearings. Lubricant flow rate and power dissipation rate were calculated together with journal center locus, minimum film thickness and maxmium film pressure. These computation results were compared with those of the case of Reynolds boundary condition. Balance between inlet and outlet flow rate was well achieved in the case of mass-conserving boundary condition.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제35권3호
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• pp.190-198
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• 2019

Gas foil bearings (GFBs) enable small- to medium-sized turbomachinery to operate at ultra-high speeds in a compact design by using ambient air or process gas as a lubricant. When using air or process gas, which have lower viscosity than lubricant oil, the turbomachinery has the advantage of reduced power loss from bearing friction drag. However, GFBs may have high Reynolds number, which causes turbulent flows due to process gas with low viscosity and high density. This paper analyzes gas foil journal bearings (GFJBs) with high Reynolds numbers and studies the effects of turbulent flows on the static and dynamic performance of bearings. For comparison purposes, air and R-134a gas lubricants are applied to the GFJBs. For the air lubricant, turbulence is dominant only at rotor speeds higher than 200 krpm. At those speeds, the journal eccentricity decreases, but the film thickness, power loss, and direct stiffness and damping coefficients increase. On the other hand, the R-134a gas lubricant, which that has much higher density than air, causes dominant turbulence at rotor speeds greater than 10 krpm. The turbulent flow model predicts decreased journal eccentricity but increased film thickness and power loss when compared with the lamina flow model predictions. The vertical direct stiffness and damping coefficients are lower at speeds below 100 krpm, but higher beyond that speeds for the turbulent model. The present results indicate that turbulent flow effects should be considered for accurate performance predictions of GFJBs with high Reynolds number.

• 한국윤활학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국윤활학회 2002년도 제35회 춘계학술대회
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• pp.226-234
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• 2002

A systematic study of the role of transfer films on friction properties was performed with various temperatures in the brake system. An NAO friction material specimens containing 9 ingredients were tested using a pad-on-disk type friction tester A new method of measuring the transfer film thickness was developed by considering the electrical resistance of the transfer film using a 4-point probe technique. The properties of transfer film such as surface morphology and film distribution vaied according to the relative amount of graphite and magnesium oxide. By using SEM, it was possible to obtain information about the chemical composition of the transfer film. Results showed that there detected a threshold value of the relative amount of a two active materials to maintain a certiain thickness of a transfer film. Results also showed that formation of friction layer generated on the friction surface was strongly affected by chemical action of two ingredients during sliding due to chemical reaction of solid lubricants at different interface temperature. The results suggested that no apparent relationship between transfer film thickness and the average friction coefficient was founded and friction characteristics were affected more by the property of the solid lubricant and abrasive in the material.

• 한국윤활학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국윤활학회 2004년도 학술대회지
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• pp.283-288
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• 2004

The measurement of ultra low aspect ratio fluid film thickness is very crucial technique both for the verification of lubrication media characteristics and for the clearance design in many precision components such as MEMS, precision bearings and other slideways. Many technologies are applied to the measurement of ultra low aspect ratio fluid film thickness (i.e. elastohydrodynamic lubrication film thickness). In particular, in-situ optical interferometric method has many advantages in making the actual contact behaviors realized with the experimental apparatus. This measurement method also does the monitoring of the surface defects and fractures happening during the contact behavior, which are delicately influenced by the surface conditions such as load, velocity, lubricant media as well as surface roughness. Careful selection of incident lights greatly enhances the fringe resolutions up to $\~1.0$ nanometer scale with digital image processing technology. In this work, it is found that coaxial aligning trichromatic incident light filtering system developed by the author can provide much finer resolution of ultra low aspect ratio fluid film thickness than monochromatic or dichromatic incident lights, because it has much more spectrums of color components to be discriminated according the variations of film thickness. For the measured interferometric images of ultra low aspect ratio fluid film thickness it is shown how the film thickness is finely digitalized and measured in nanometer scale with digital image processing technology and space layer method. The developed measurement system can make it possible to visualize the contact deformations and possible fractures of contacting surface under the repeated loading condition.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.85-93
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• 1998

The Bair & Winer's limiting shear stress rheological model is incorporated into the Reynolds equation to successfully predict the traction and film thickness for an isothermal line contact using the primary rheological properties. The modified WLF viscosity model and Barus viscosity model are also adapted for the realistic prediction of EHD tractional behavior. The influences of the limiting shear stress and slide-roll ratio on the pressure spike, film thickness, distribution of shear stress and nonlinear variation of traction are examined. A good agreement between the disc machine experiments and numerical traction prediction has been established. The film thickness due to non-Newtonian effects does not deviate significantly from the fdm thicknesss with Newtonian lubricant.

• 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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• 제10권3호
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• pp.18-28
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• 1994

Sliding friction between a spherical pin of 8mm in diameter and flat (disk) substrates coated with vacuum-deposited thin film was measured under ultra high vacuum pressure for various materials, various rates of film supply (8~210 nm/min), various sliding velocities (1.5~67.0 mm/s). It was found that the most effective lubrication was obtained when the adhesion between $Si_3N_4$ pin and SUS440C disk was high and that between $Si_3N_4$ pin and $Si_3N_4$ disk was low. When In film was used as a lubricant between $Si_3N_4$ pin and stainless steel disk, the friction coefficient had a value as low as 0.04. In this case, the normal load W and the sliding speed V were expressed as 10N and 24 mm/s for $10^{-6}Pa$. The dependence of $\mu$ on the thickness h of the Ag film, which was used as a lubricant between $Si_3N_4$ pin and SUS440C (Q) disk was expressed as $\mu$=0.12 for W=10N and V=24mm/s when the film was thicker than 100nm. A brief discussion on these relations is presented from the viewpoint of the real contact area.