Lubricants, Volume 10, Issue 5 (May 2022) – 31 articles

Based on a dynamic analysis of rolling bearings, the equations for rocker arm full-type needle bearings were established by considering the traction coefficients of FVA-M reference lubricating oil, and then they were solved by the GSTIFF (Gear Stiff) integer algorithm with variable steps. The influence of working conditions on friction power consumption and the lubricant’s convective coefficients were investigated. Then, on the basis of the heat generation and heat transfer mechanisms, the frictional power consumption was used as the boundary condition of the bearings’ simulation model. Finally, temperature fields were calculated by the finite element method. The results showed that the overall value of frictional power consumption increased gradually with the increase in either the radial load or the rotation speed. The presence or absence of lubricating oil film in the contact area affected the heat conduction of the bearing, resulting in a temperature difference. Compared with the temperature of the radial load exerted on the bearing, the maximum temperature was more sensitive to the variations in the rotation speed. When running under the conditions of a fatigue life test, the steady-state temperature value of the bearing gradually decreased from the outer raceway to the needle roller and the outer ring surface, and then to the central shaft. The maximum temperature rise was 25.9 °C relative to the ambient temperature. Full article

Condition monitoring of components in internal combustion engines is an essential tool for increasing engine durability and avoiding critical engine operation. If lubrication at the crankshaft main bearings is insufficient, metal-to-metal contacts become likely and thus wear can occur. Bearing temperature measurements with thermocouples serve as a reliable, fast responding, individual bearing-oriented method that is comparatively simple to apply. In combination with a corresponding reference model, such measurements could serve to monitor the bearing condition. Based on experimental data from an MAN D2676 LF51 heavy-duty diesel engine, the derivation of a data-driven model for the crankshaft main bearing temperatures under steady-state engine operation is discussed. A total of 313 temperature measurements per bearing are available for this task. Readily accessible engine operating data that represent the corresponding engine operating points serve as model inputs. Different machine learning methods are thoroughly tested in terms of their prediction error with the help of a repeated nested cross-validation. The methods include different linear regression approaches (i.e., with and without lasso regularization), gradient boosting regression and support vector regression. As the results show, support vector regression is best suited for the problem. In the final evaluation on unseen test data, this method yields a prediction error of less than 0.4 °C (root mean squared error). Considering the temperature range from approximately 76 °C to 112 °C, the results demonstrate that it is possible to reliably predict the bearing temperatures with the chosen approach. Therefore, the combination of a data-driven bearing temperature model and thermocouple-based temperature measurements forms a powerful tool for monitoring the condition of sliding bearings in internal combustion engines. Full article

In recent years, deep learning has become prevalent in Remaining Useful-Life (RUL) prediction of bearings. The current deep-learning-based RUL methods tend to extract high dimensional features from the original vibration data to construct the Health Indicators (HIs), and then use the HIs to predict the remaining life of the bearings. These approaches ignore the sequential relationship of the original vibration data and seriously affect the prediction accuracy. In order to tackle this problem, we propose a hard negative sample contrastive learning prediction model (HNCPM) with encoder module, GRU regression module and decoder module, used for feature embedding, regression RUL prediction and vibration data reconstruction, respectively. We introduce self-supervised contrast learning by constructing positive and negative samples of vibration data rather than constructing any health indicators. Furthermore, to avoid the subtle variability of vibration data in the health stage to aggravate the degradation features learning of the model, we propose the hard negative samples by cosine similarity, which are most similar to the positive sample. Meanwhile, a novel infoNCE and MSE-based loss function is derived and applied to the HNCPM to simultaneously optimize a lower bound on mutual information of the positive and negative sample over life cycle, as well as the discrepancy between true and predicted values of the vibration data, such that the model can learn the fine-grained degradation representations by predicting the future without any HIs as labels. The HNCPM is validated on the IEEE PHM Challenge 2012 dataset. The results demonstrate that the prediction performance of our model is superior to the state-of-the-art methods. Full article

In order to improve the anti-wear performance of a double-vane self-priming centrifugal pump during two-phase flow transfer, the construction of a streamline groove structure at the outlet end of the suction side of the vane, based on the bionic principle, is proposed. Different pump characteristics are analysed to investigate the effect of different bionic groove spacing on the resistance to particle wear and the mechanism of improvement of the bionic grooves. The results show that the effect of the bionic blades on the hydraulic characteristics of the pump is within the allowable error (±1.4%). The circular groove structure with different spacing produces a difference in the pressure distribution on the blade. At the same particle concentration, with the increase in the groove spacing distance, the average wear of the blades first decreases and then increases; the average wear rate at the spacing of 7 mm is the smallest. At a particle concentration of 90 kg/m³, the average wear rate at a groove spacing of 7 mm is ~0.63 × 10⁻⁴ kg/s∙m², and the wear area is mainly found in the middle of the blade. The reason why the bionic blade improves the anti-wear performance of the pump is due to the reverse vortex zone in the groove, which changes the particle trajectory and collision frequency. The bionic grooves with a diameter of 2 mm and a spacing of 7 mm significantly reduce the average wear rate of the pump at different particle concentrations, while maintaining hydraulic performance. Full article

Although many friction models have been developed by various researchers over the years, a general model does not exist yet. In this article, we present the work that was developed to identify and propose an empirical model that represents the behavior of friction in a cable-driven transmission. We designed and built a test bench that allowed us to study the incidence of friction as evidenced by the type of cable thread, the dimensions of the pulley and the capstan and the application of an external load for pulley-cable type transmissions in a variety of configurations. The results obtained show a marked influence of the external load on friction behavior. Based on these results, we propose a friction model that involves the external load and the transmission ratio. During the validation of the model, it was found that the proposed model reproduced the friction behavior better than the LuGre model, obtaining errors up to 44% lower, mainly for high loads and low speeds. Full article

The article presents the results of tribological investigations into the steel/polymer/steel sandwich material LITECOR^® developed by ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe for applications in the automotive industry. Friction tests were carried out by means of a strip drawing test with the use of a special tribotester mounted on a uniaxial tensile test machine. The influence of sheet deformation on the value of the coefficient of friction (COF) was considered. For this purpose, the samples were subjected to a pre-deformation of 4%, 8% and 12%. Friction tests were carried out with different force values and under different friction conditions, i.e., in dry friction conditions and lubrication of the sheet surface with L-AN 46 machine oil. The highest values of COF were observed for as-received sheets. In contrast, apart from the friction process under the conditions of the lowest force analysed, the lowest value of the COF was observed for pre-strained sheets with a deformation of 12%. The lubrication efficiency of the pre-strained strip specimens with ε = 4% was between 10.5% and 16.3%, with a trend of increasing lubrication efficiency with increasing force. For pre-strained sheets with deformation ε = 12%, there was a trend of decreasing effectiveness from 14.9% to 9.03% with an increase in force. Full article

It has been shown experimentally that boundary friction is proportional to load (commonly known as Amontons’ law) for more than 500 years, and the fact that it holds true over many scales (from microns to kilometres, and from nano-Newtons to Mega-Newtons) and for materials which deform both elastically and plastically has been the subject of much research, in order to more fully understand its wide applicability (and also to find any deviations from the law). Attempts to explain and understand Amontons’ law recognise that real surfaces are rough; as such, many researchers have studied the contact of rough surfaces under both elastic and plastic deformation conditions. As the focus on energy efficiency is ever increasing, machines are now being used with lower-viscosity lubricants, operating at higher loads and temperatures, such that the oil films separating the moving surfaces are becoming thinner, and there is a greater chance of mixed/boundary lubrication occurring. Because mixed/boundary lubrication occurs when the two moving rough surfaces come into contact, it is thought timely to review this topic and the current state of the theoretical and experimental understanding of rough-surface contact for the prediction of friction in the mixed/boundary lubrication regime. Full article

Information such as probability distribution, performance degradation trajectory, and performance reliability function varies with the service status of rolling bearings, which is difficult to analyze and evaluate using traditional reliability theory. Adding equipment operation status to evaluate the bearing operation performance status has become the focus of current research to ensure the effective maintenance of the system, reduce faults, and improve quality under the condition of traditional probability statistics. So, a mathematical model is established by proposing the hierarchical maximum entropy Bayesian method (HMEBM), which is used to evaluate the operation performance status of rolling bearings. When calculating the posterior probability density function (PPDF), the similarities between time series regarded as a weighting coefficient are calculated using overlapping area method, membership degree method, Hamming approach degree method, Euclidean approach degree method, and cardinal approach degree method. The experiment investigation shows that the variation degree of the optimal vibration performance status can be calculated more accurately for each time series relative to the intrinsic series. Full article

The reliability of rolling bearings is affected by white etching crack (WEC) or white structure flaking (WSF) failures, causing tremendous commercial burdens for bearing manufacturers and operators. The research for the underlying failure mechanism has attracted interest from a large scientific community over decades. Despite the significant amount of efforts, a root cause of white etching cracking is still missing. Amongst other factors, lubricant chemistry is considered to be essential in WEC formation. The authors aim to elucidate this key parameter by provoking white etching crack formation on a FE8 bearing test rig using a well-described set of chemicals in high- and low-reference lubricants. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis prove the presence of a patchy tribofilm on the surface of bearing washers, leading most likely to a higher frictional torque at the early stages of operation when the low reference oil is used. Secondary neutral mass spectrometry (SNMS) shows a hydrogen containing tribofilm in the shallow subsurface of about 30 nm depth, suggesting that hydrogen proliferating into bearing material may subsequently facilitate crack propagation via dislocation pileups, leading to premature bearing failure. Full article

In the context of sustainable development and under the impulse of continuous technological progress, tribology contributes to the improvement of the life span of parts in dynamic contact and to the efficiency of mechanical systems. However, even if successes are obtained in lubrication, the tribology community struggles to build generalised laws of friction and wear in the case of dry friction. Based on the thermodynamics of open systems, we suggest an adaptation of the conservation of mass and energy equations to the tribosystem. The latter is modelled using the concepts of tribological triplet, tribological circuit and accommodation mechanisms. The tribosystem is described with four control volumes: two of them represent the first two bodies in dynamic contact; a third one is the tribofilm produced by the debris emission from the first bodies; a fourth control volume is used as an interface between the third body and the external environment. A mass balance is applied to these four control volumes by considering their interactions. An energy balance is then derived by applying the first principle of thermodynamics. Two systems of interdependent equations that describe the circulation of matter and energy flows in the tribosystem are outlined. These equations can be considered as a basis for future experimental developments that would aim at simultaneously characterising the different modes of energy dissipation in dynamic contact, qualitatively and especially quantitatively. Full article

The minimization of friction losses in internal combustion engines is a goal of primary importance for the automotive industry, both to improve performance and to comply with increasingly stringent legislative requirements. It is therefore necessary to provide designers with tools for the effective estimation of friction losses from the earliest stages of design. We present a code for the estimation of friction losses in piston assembly that uses semianalytical models that require only strictly necessary geometric and functional inputs for the representation of components. This feature renders the code particularly suitable for the preliminary design phase. Furthermore, models ensure reduced computation times while maintaining excellent predictive capabilities, as demonstrated by the numerical–experimental comparison. Full article

Stiction, run-in wear and friction of lubricated polyoxymethylene homopolymer (POM)- and aliphatic polyamide (PA46)-steel tribosystems were investigated for mild-loaded mixed lubrication conditions with and without thermal conditioning of the polymers in the lubricant prior to testing. Macroscopic oscillatory tribometry and standard gliding experiments were carried out. The hypothesis that sorption of a lubricant into a thermoplastic polymer and partial solving of the surface by the lubricant can change wear rate and friction was tested. It was found that for POM-lubricant-pairings, the tribological behavior is dominated by the sorption of the lubricant into the polymer; it is not influenced by the spreading energy. For the PA46-lubricant pairings, no mass uptake by sorption was measured, and the tribological behavior is influenced by spreading and changes in hardness due to thermal aging. For mild loading in mixed lubricated conditions, friction and wear properties seem to be primarily determined by the hardness-dependence of abrasive contact and less by adhesion or hysteretic mechanisms. Full article

Most commercial automotive turbochargers (TC) employ semi-floating ring bearings (SFRB) with axial groove shapes. In order to bring some insights into the role played by the axial groove geometry on the dynamics of TC, this work deals with an experimental study of the rotordynamic behavior of a stock automotive turbocharger operating on SFRB with two different groove shapes, which have the same volume and width, and with the same number of grooves. The rotating machine behavior has been evaluated under different operating conditions using a test bench specially designed to analyze turbochargers. Rotordynamic (RD) characteristics of automotive turbochargers are estimated to evaluate the influence of the axial groove geometry on the machine vibratory behavior. Frequency spectra and orbital plots of the rotor are obtained from accelerometers and proximity probes mounted on the turbocharger. The comparative analysis of the vibrational behavior of automotive turbochargers running on different supporting systems allows the identification of the role played by the axial grooves on the machine rotordynamic performance. The experimental results rendered in this work permit to classify the influence of the axial groove geometry on the turbocharger rotordynamic behavior for several speed and flow conditions. Full article

Tribological properties of five anti-wear additives for a steel-copper contact were investigated. It was found that the tribological performances are closely related to the molecular structure of additives. The protic ionic liquid anti-wear additive AW316 exhibits the best tribological performance with the lowest mean friction coefficient of 0.082, and the smallest wear volume, which is more than one order of magnitude smaller than base oil. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) tests reveal that a 10–15 nm thickness uniform boundary lubrication film composed of oxides, phosphates, and cuprous oxide was formed on the copper disc, which was responsible for its outstanding tribological performances. Full article

(1) Background: Operational properties and durability of dies in different metal-forming processes significantly depend on their surface quality. Major die failures are related to surface damage due to heat checking cracks, wear, etc. Thereby, strengthening of the working surfaces of dies for hot bending, stamping, forging, and die casting processes is an urgent engineering challenge. Surface alloying with high-energy beams improves the properties of steel products. In these processes, the alloying powders and the treated surfaces can be remelted by electron beam within a short time while the bulk structure of the component remains unchanged, resulting in minimal distortion. The paper presents the results of the electron beam surface alloying (EBSA) of H21 and L6 tool steels with the treatment pastes containing boron carbide and aluminum powders. (2) Methods: Two types of pastes were used for surface alloying: a single-component (B₄C) paste and a two-component (B₄C+Al) one. The microstructure, microhardness, wear resistance, and elemental and phase composition of the layers obtained on steels were investigated. (3) Results: Four layers up to 0.4 mm thick were distinguished on the surface of the steels after the EBSA. Metallographic analysis showed coarse dendrite formation in the layers embedded in matrices of a eutectic or a solid solution. Microhardness of the steels after the two-component EBSA was higher than after B₄C EBSA, which was related to a higher concentration of hard phases, such as iron borides and carbides. In addition, aluminum boride was revealed by the XRD analysis on L6 steel after B₄C+Al EBSA. (4) Conclusions: Wear test indicated that the most resistant samples were H21 steel after single B₄C EBSA and L6 steel after B₄C+Al EBSA. Both samples contained carbon particles in the layer contributing to the high wear resistance as a lubricant. The conducted research is beneficial for mechanical engineering, automotive engineering, medical technology, aerospace engineering, and related industries, where coatings with high microhardness, wear resistance, and surface quality are demanded. Full article

This study deals with experimental and numerical analysis of the thermal effects of slender elastohydrodynamically lubricated (EHL) contacts under high sliding. Thereby, the entrainment direction is along the major axis of the contact ellipse. Film thickness measurements were carried out on an optical EHL tribometer with a glass disk and steel roller. Numerical EHL solutions were obtained with consideration for non-Newtonian rheology and thermal effects. The results show that thermal effects can result in a strong viscosity wedge diverting oil flow to the contact sides. For high positive sliding, in which the glass disk moves faster, the influence of entrainment speed on minimum film thickness is almost negligible, while the film thickness shows a continuous decrease in gap length direction. Full article

Nitriding can significantly increase the load carrying properties of gears. While the diffusion layer is primarily responsible for improving the tooth root and flank load carrying capacity, the compound layer mainly determines the tribological properties of the gear surface. In the present work, the influence of the compound layer on the tribological load carrying capacity of nitrided gears in the N/N pairing was investigated. For this purpose, compound layers with different thickness, porosity and phase composition were produced and their micro-pitting and wear behavior were investigated in load stage and speed stage tests. The test results confirm that the properties of the compound layer are decisive for the micro-pitting and wear resistance of nitrided gears. For a high micro-pitting resistance, the presence of pores in the near-surface area of the compound layer is of high importance, since no micro-pitting occurred as long as pores were present. With regard to the wear behavior, no dependence on the compound layer thickness or the porous zone thickness was found while the phase composition of the compound layer shows a decisive influence. Full article

Rolling element bearings are required to operate in a variety of use cases that determine voltage potentials will form between the rolling elements and races. When the electrical field strength causes the dielectric breakdown of the intermediary lubricant film electrical discharge can damage the bearing surfaces. To reduce the prevalence and severity of electrical discharge machining an improved understanding of the coupled electrical and mechanical behavior is necessary. This paper aims to improve understanding of the problem through a combined elastohydrodynamic and electrostatic numerical study of charged elastohydrodynamic conjunctions. The results show the effect of amplitude reduction means that for typical surface topographies found in EHL conjunctions the maximum field strength is adequately predicted by the elastohydrodynamic minimum film thickness and potential difference. The paper also indicates the width of the elevated electrical field strength region is dependent on EHL parameters which could have important implications on the magnitude of current density during dielectric breakdown. Full article

WC-(Fe-Mn-C) composites with γ-iron and γ + α’ matrices were sintered and then tested at sliding speeds in the range 7–37 m/s. The coefficient of friction was exponentially reduced as a function of sliding speed reaching its minimum at 37 m/s. This behavior was provided by the mechanochemical formation of iron tungstate FeWO₄ on the worn surfaces of composite samples. The lubricating effect of iron tungstate did not, however, allow for a reduction in wear. The worn surface was represented by a 3–10 μm-thickness tribological layer composed of fine WC and iron particles cemented by FeWO₄. This layer provided the self-lubricating effect in high-speed (high-temperature) sliding because of its easy shear and quasi-viscous behavior. The underlying 25–65 μm of thickness layer was composed of only heat-affected WC and recrystallized iron grains. Full article

Based on the methods of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, it was found that the implementation of spontaneous processes with positive entropy production during friction leads to an increase in the wear intensity. Non-spontaneous processes with negative entropy production lead to a decrease in wear intensity. The tribological characteristics of diamond-like carbon (DLC) with different silicon content were studied. The wear intensity practically does not correlate with the friction coefficient. It is shown that DLC with the highest content of diamond-like inclusions (sp³) in the coating has the highest wear rate. In the same DLC, the most intense sp³–sp² transformation during friction was observed. The sp³–sp² transformation is a spontaneous process. Full article

Because of the impact of lubrication on the efficiency and the lifecycle cost and emissions, the lubricating-oil consumption (LOC) is one of the key indicators in the research and development of internal combustion engines. State-of-the-art methods for LOC measurement are based on the use of a certain tracer to track the oil consumption. However, all of the currently available tracers have their downsides (e.g., the use of a radioactive tracer, corrosive emissions, etc.). Therefore, in the course of this research project, a new tracer substance that is based on a stable nonradioactive isotope of hydrogen—deuterium—was developed and tested thoroughly. The LOC is monitored by a hydrogen/deuterium isotopic ration in the exhaust gas by using an isotopic water analyzer. Tribologically important properties, such as the viscosity, stability, and compatibility of the tracer were investigated by laboratory experiments by using several tools, such as infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography, thermogravimetry, etc. The properties relevant to the applicability of the method, such as the accuracy and the reproducibility, were investigated by engine test-bench experiments. Finally, long-term stability tests of the tracer were conducted with a field test. Full article

In tilting-pad journal bearings (TPJB), power loss corresponds to the internal friction in the shearing of the oil. Besides the lubrication gap, intermediate spaces between the pads account for a notable amount of frictional losses. Against the background of increasing demands for efficiency and sustainable use of resources, the reduction of power loss takes a key position in the further development of bearings. In our research, we compare two bearing lubrication concepts of a five-pad TPJB. Our objective is to work out the influence of different lubrication methods and bearing housing designs on the bearing operation characteristics. We conduct experimental testing of a 500 mm TPJB in two different bearing configurations with respect to the lubrication concept: an oil-flooded and non-flooded bearing design. In the flooded bearing design, oil is supplied via spray-bars and axial seals ensure the inter-pad spaces to be completely filled with oil. The non-flooded design comes without axial seals but oil drain channels to avoid oil accumulation in the bearing. In the latter design, oil is fed in via leading edge grooves (LEG). For the non-flooded bearing design, the experimental data show that the unloaded pads are not completely filled with oil and therefore, no pressure build-up occurs. The absence of additional load on the lower pads compared to the flooded design results in an increase of minimum film thickness. With the non-flooded design, power loss at high speeds is reduced to almost half. As a result, the efficiency of the entire turbomachinery application can be considerably improved. Full article

Hydraulic components are often subjected to sliding contacts under starved or mixed lubrication. The condition of starved lubrication occurs during the start-up phase of the hydraulic machines or at low working temperature, causing friction and wear of components such as the cylinder block or the valve plate. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the hydrophobicity and oleophilic behavior of lead/lead-free bronze coatings under different texture conditions obtained by varying the diameter and the density of the dimples. The wettability tests were performed using sessile drop tests with oil and water liquids. The dimple parameters were analyzed using confocal microscopy, while the XRF analyses were performed to evaluate the composition of the bronze coatings. Based on the wettability measurements using oil and water, it was possible to assess that the porous surface acted as oil reservoirs that could prolong the life of lubricating oil layer, and may have resulted in a superior wear resistance. Furthermore, a relevant hydrophobicity was highlighted, suggesting that the surface texturing promoted the water-repellent barrier action on the surface. The experimental results showed that the discrepancy in surface properties in oil and water was raised when using the lead bronze coating. These coupled oleophilic and hydrophobic behaviors could play a beneficial role in sustaining the durability of a lubricating oil layer under a condition of continuous water-droplet impact. Full article

Surface roughness is considered as an important measuring parameter in the machining industry that aids in ensuring the quality of the finished product. In turning operations, the tool and workpiece contact develop friction and cause heat generation, which in turn affects the machined surface. The use of cutting fluid in the machining zone helps to minimize the heat generation. In this paper, minimum quantity lubrication is used in turning of AISI 304 steel for determining the surface roughness. The cutting fluid is enriched with alumina nanoparticles of two different average particle sizes of 30 and 40 nm. Among the input parameters chosen for investigation are cutting speed, depth of cut, feed rate, and nanoparticle concentration. The response surface approach is used in the design of the experiment (RSM). For the purpose of estimating the surface roughness and comparing the experimental value to the predicted values, three machine learning-based models, including linear regression (LR), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM), are utilized in addition. For the purpose of evaluating the accuracy of the predicted values, the coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and mean square error (MSE) were all used. Random forest outperformed the other two models in both the particle sizes of 30 and 40 nm, with R-squared of 0.8176 and 0.7231, respectively. Thus, this study provides a novel approach in predicting the surface roughness by varying the particle size in the cutting fluid using machine learning, which can save time and wastage of material and energy. Full article

The paper presents certain problems related to the lubrication of textured surfaces. It was noted that for a specific load, the lubrication effectiveness will depend on the shape, size and mutual distribution of the texture’s elements. Proposals for determining the lubrication irregularity parameters were presented for textures with a rectangular mesh and round recesses. The experimental part presents the laser texturing methodology, tribological testing methodology and preliminary test results where the significant role of the relationship between the trajectory of motion and the texture mesh was demonstrated. Full article

The composites on the base of Co₃O₄ and graphene are in demand in the field of portable, flexible energy storage devices due to their small size, lightweight, big specific capacitance, good cycle stability and appropriate capacitance retention. The synthesis of this material always starts from the treatment of graphene oxide, so as a result, experimenters receive Co₃O₄ nanocubes incorporated into reduced graphene oxide indicates the presence of different oxygen-containing groups in the compound. This fact may limit the advantages of the considered material. Our theoretical quantum chemical calculations show that the process of Co₃O₄ incorporation between reduced graphene oxide layers is more energetically favorable in comparison to pure graphene. However, the win in the quantum capacitance in the case of pure graphene is in the range of 300–500 F/g in dependence on the applied voltage. The obtained result may indicate the need for modification of the current methods of graphene/Co₃O₄ synthesis to improve its application in supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries. Full article

With the increasing market demand for artificial hip joints, total hip joint replacement has gradually become an effective means of treating a series of hip joint diseases. In order to improve the service life of artificial hip joints, some new artificial hip joint materials, including polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and carbon fiber reinforced polyetheretherketone (CFR-PEEK), have been developed. In this paper, pin-on-plate wear tests under different cross-shear ratios and contact pressures were carried out to study the wear mechanism and worn surface topography of PEEK and CFR-PEEK. The experimental results showed that the wear of PEEK was associated with cross-shear, while CFR-PEEK was not. When the cross-shear ratio was 0.039 and contact pressure was 3.18 MPa, PEEK had poor wear resistance and its wear factor was about eight times that of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). The wear resistance of CFR-PEEK had a significant advantage, since its wear factor was about 30% of that of PEEK. The wear factors of PEEK and CFR-PEEK increased as the contact pressure increased. The arithmetic average of the height amplitude of the surface, Sa, also increased gradually according to the topography of the worn surface. The wear mechanisms of PEEK and CFR-PEEK were scratching, plough cutting, and abrasion Since CFR-PEEK had good wear resistance and insensitivity to cross-shear motion, it is suitable for making artificial hip joints under low contact pressure condition. Full article

Constant further developments in application technology with the aim of higher economic efficiency and power density place ever greater demands on mechanical components and construction elements and thus on the lubricating greases used. This is particularly true in the area of roller bearings, in which lubricating greases are sometimes used with high mechanical stress and in wide temperature ranges. A current example is the rolling bearings in the assemblies of hybrid vehicles, which are subjected to extreme thermal and mechanical loads due to engine downsizing, high speeds and the radiant heat from the combustion engine. Investigations at the Competence Center of Tribology Mannheim (KTM) show that the grease service life for roller bearing lubrication, even at high temperatures, does not only depend on classic oil aging. In numerous roller bearing tests and by means of rheological measurements, it could be shown that the loss of the lubricating effect is a consequence of the change in the thickener structure. Mechanical, thermal, oxidative and catalytic processes play a decisive role here. In this article, a scientific method is presented for the first time as to how these individual influencing factors can be examined and evaluated independent from one another. For this purpose, the first results of an ongoing DGMK project are presented and evaluated. Full article

Failures of multi-plate clutches must be reliably excluded due to safety-critical functionalities in the drive train. The main reason for failures of multi-plate clutches due to long-term and spontaneous damage is thermal damage. In this paper, a parameterizable two-dimensional finite element model is developed and validated for damage prevention and for analyzing the thermo-mechanical behavior of a clutch in transient operation. Both numerical verification and validation with experimental results are very good despite the simplifications in the model. Subsequently, the temperature and pressure distribution of the individual friction areas is determined. The results show that the maximum temperatures tend to occur at the outer diameter of the friction area. The pressure distribution is very homogeneous. In a parameter study, the influence of Young’s modulus of the friction lining, the thermal conductivity of the friction lining, and the steel plate thickness on the temperature and pressure behavior in the clutch is investigated. Although the Young’s modulus of the friction lining influences the pressure distribution in the friction contact, the temperature behavior is only slightly changed by the variation of the elastic modulus due to the load case. The thermal conductivity of the lining and steel plate thickness have a strong influence on the temperature level in the clutch. However, the distribution of pressures is still very homogeneous compared to the reference model. Full article

The reliability and safety of bolted joints is one of the crucial engineering problems during design of mechanical structures. In this paper, finite element method was used to investigate an asymmetrical, seven-bolted joint. The modelling takes into account the phenomenon of friction and the mechanics of contact between the joined elements. The bolts were preloaded using two different approaches: single and multi-pass. The damage of a bolt was simulated by its removal from the model. The conducted research showed influence of the number of preloading passes and its order on the forces acting in bolts both before and after damage. The obtained results were validated by experimental tests and presented as force diagrams for all investigated cases. Full article