The wall thickness of a spherical sintered bearing varies throughout its length. Equations for the performance characteristics of such a bearing are obtained on the basis of the short bearing assumption and curves relating the friction parameter and the load parameter are plotted for a range of design variables. The pressure distribution along the length is also presented for a typical case. These characteristics are compared with those of an equivalent cylindrical bearing of the same length, internal diameter and porous metal volume. © 1977.

T. Sowmyan

journal bearing

SPHERICAL BEARING

FLOW OF FLUIDS - Porous Materials

Bearings

IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

Theoretical performance characteristics of spherical sintered bearings

Wear

Sintered bearings which are porous in structure contain oil in the pores. However, with time the oil content of the bearing decreases as a result of leakage, evaporation etc. In order to determine the frictional characteristics of such oil-starved bearings, sintered bearings in which the oil contents were progressively decreased were prepared and tested. From the experiments it is shown that there is no substantial increase in the coefficient of friction as up to about 50% of the oil content is lost. When the amount of oil in the bearing is reduced further there is an increase in the coefficient of friction. Temperature measurements on the bearings also confirmed the above behaviour. To determine whether a bearing that has lost more than 50% of its oil content can be recharged by adding few drops to the surface of the bearing, oil was added to a bearing which was working at 42% of the initial oil content. As a result of this the oil content increased to 62% and the coefficient of friction decreased to the corresponding value. Thus it was found that it is possible to recharge an oil-starved sintered bearing by adding a few drops of oil to the bearing surface, wherever it is accessible, and thereby increasing the life of the bearing. © 1984.

Journal	Wear
ISSN	00431648
Open Access	No