Influence Analysis of the Antifriction Layer Materials and Thickness on the Contact Interaction of Spherical Bearings Elements

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The presented paper "Influence analysis of the antifriction layer materials and thickness on the contact interaction of spherical bearings elements" is about deformation behaviour spherical bearing of an antifriction layer of thickness 4-8 mm. The structure and content of the paper need to be improved with proper justification of the selection of materials, parameters of simulation and tools of simulations. The drafted manuscript does not meet the requirements of a high-quality journal in part of the very confusing information, discussion and presentation of the results. The author is requested to reply following comments and modify the manuscript for better readability and understanding.

1. "The contact deformation analysis of elements of spherical bearing through an antifriction polymer layer from modern antifriction materials set of different thickness was performed in this paper" the sentence seems messy. Please rewrite it.
2. Write the complete form of UHMWPE and PTFE in the abstract as it appeared the first time.
3. The whole abstract need to be rewritten for better clarity.
4. What is the condition of deformation? Kindly mention load or pressure parameters.
5. Avoid second-person "we" in the whole manuscript as it is mentioned in several places.
6. Research gap, objective and problem formulation need to be mentioned in the introduction section.
7. The lines 102-103 and 125-126 are about ANSYS software and FEM Analysis, but authors should mention the name of product/tools as ANSYS provides a wide range of simulation tools.
8. In line 118, the 'setting' word is used twice continuously. Many sentences are incorrect, so kindly read them carefully and correct them.
9. In line 148, please write according to whom (name of researchers) [21].
10. In lines 163-165, 'The materials friction coefficient is taken from reference literature and is constant for all polymers and composites based on them is 0.04.' Add the reference.
11. The data presented in Figure 2 is experimental or simulated data; please clarify. The quality of the figure needs to be improved.
12. In line 170, the Authors should check the sentence "Established that the numerical calculation".
13. Add reference for equation no 4. Equation no 4 seems incomplete as P_k, u_n, and  are not mentioned in the equation. It should be there as per lines 213-214.
14. In line 293, In 2016, Niemierko [23] came to the conclusion that modern bridge bearings are now more mechanical structures than construction ones. Please rewrite the sentences.
15. Discussion part 4.1 seems like a combination of abstract and introduction, and discussion part 4.2 combines literature from previous work. An author should rewrite the discussion part too.
16. In line 306, The limited use of pure form material is noted in [30]. Please describe.
17. In line 315, the story shows the continuous modification of the structural element's configuration of the bridge's bearings. Please mention the story that the author is discussing.
18. In line 344, please rewrite the sentence.
19. The conclusion must be from the result and discussion, but the author presents a conclusion different from the results. Kindly modify it.

Author Response

Hello.

We made corrections to the article according to the comments and recommendations. Answer to the review in the attached file.

We were try to edit english language and style. Professional editing of the article can be done for its final version.

Best wishes, authors

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

1.Background and relevant researches achives in references were not introduced in detail.

2.ANSYS contact element model of the composite material is not clear.Pls tell the readers element type, layers and relevant data like that shown in Figure1 .

3.Contact computation method should be results should be identified. 

4.The stress and contact force results should be shown to improve the calculation results are correct in line 192,193.

Author Response

Hello.

We made corrections to the article according to the comments and recommendations. Answer to the review in the attached file.

Best wishes, authors 

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have satisfactorily incorporated most of the comments, but additional clarifications are needed in the revised manuscript.

1. Line 126, “The paper performed” should be “The authors have performed”
2. In the text, figures are cited as “Fig”, but it is written as Figure in the caption. Is it ok?
3. Line 275, and  are calculated by the formula (4). Where is formula (4) with  and  Terms?
4. Line 295, is calculated by the formula (4). How please clarify?
5. The conclusions are still not supported by the results. It needs to be improved

Author Response

Hello.

We made corrections to the article according to the comments and recommendations. Answer to the review in the attached file.

Best wishes, authors

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Spherical bearings perceive vertical and horizontal loads.This paper analyzed the contact deformation of spherical bearing elements at a nominal vertical load of 1000 kN. The six sliding layer material are considered which Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio and strain curve are obtained experimentally as well.  The influenceof the antifriction layer materials and thickness was obtained and the option of increasing the sliding layer thickness up to 6-8 mm is introduced. 

Form the discription above and the updated manuscript according to the suggestion, it can be seen that the paper employed the FEM method to solve the problem and the conclusions induced from the calculation results are reasonable and practical.

If possible, the performance of bearing under other load conditions would be worth looking forward.

Author Response

Hello.

We made corrections to the article according to the comments and recommendations. Answer to the review in the attached file.

Best wishes, authors