Effect of lubricants containing different Nano-particles on the performance of worn journal bearings

Abstract EN

The present work deals with the isothermal analysis of worn journal bearing lubricated with Nano-lubricants.

The bearing wear affect the oil film thickness and causes a decrease in load carrying capacity of the journal bearing.

On the other hand, many works show that the addition of Nano- particles to the oil enhances its viscosity.

The main goal of the present work is to investigate the ability of the Nano-lubricant to correct the wear effect on the performance of such bearings.

The modified Reynolds equation was solved using finite difference technique to obtain the pressure distribution in the clearance gap of the worn journal bearing.

Dufran's model was used to include the effect of wear on the thickness of the oil film.

The effect of adding three different types of Nano-particles namely, Dimond, CuO and TiO2 to the base oil has been investigated.

Bearing static characteristics in terms of load capacity, friction force, end leakage and power loss for different eccentricity ratios have been investigated.

The mathematical model has been validated for the pressure results obtained in the present work with that obtained by other workers and the results found to be in a good agreement.

The results obtained in the present work show that the load carrying capacity enhances by about40%, 9% and 3% for the bearing with wear depth parameter of 0.4, eccentricity ratio of 0.7 lubricated with oil containing TiO2, CuO and Dimond Nanoparticles respectively in comparison with pure oil lubricated bearing.