A technique for forecasting the durability of rolling bearings and the optimum choice of lubricants under flood-lubrication and oil-starvation conditions

Abstract

Effective conditions of friction in units that ensure performance and maximum longevity have been created by flood lubrication under the conditions of elastohydrodynamic (EHD) lubrication. In connection with this, prolonging the service life of friction units by ensuring local requirements to the amount of oil in the contact area and establishing the optimum choice of lubricating material in terms of its viscosity ratings is a topical problem for rolling bearings. Thus, it is suggested to determine the parameter of the lubricating layer (λ) values for the conditions of flood lubrication (λ_o) and progressing (λ_o.s) and catastrophic (λ_c.s) oil starvation for a wide spectrum of lubricating materials of different viscosity, since, in oil starvation mode, the efficiency of EHD conditions is violated, the lubrication mode is disturbed, and the bearing capacity of the EHD lubricating layer is lost.