A synergistic solution of vibration assisted strengthening and surface micro-texture for the wear of aviation spherical plain bearing

Abstract

Aviation spherical plain bearing often undergoes serious wear due to its extreme and complex working condition. This paper presents a solution of vibration assisted strengthening and surface micro-texture for the wear of aviation spherical plain bearing to achieve the synergistic effects of surface property-improving and appearance-improving. On the basis of analysis the wear mechanism of spherical plain bearing systematically, it attempts to scientifically understand how the vibration assisted strengthening and micro texture can decrease the wear of spherical plain bearing by proposing the distribution function of asperity height and contact theory. The vibration assisted strengthening and micro-texture surface are prepared and the tribological property of friction pairs are investigated on the UMT TriboLab platform. The theoretical analysis and experimental results indicate that the flat-headed distribution of surface asperities is beneficial to improving the contact state and lubricant capability. The vibration assisted strengthening can effectively decrease the friction coefficient of frictional pairs to about 0.11 by decreasing the surface roughness of frictional pairs from about Ra 0.23μm to about Ra 70nm and increasing the micro hardness nearly by 54%. Static load, strengthening times and rotational speed of vibration assisted strengthening have obvious influences on the surface roughness and micro hardness of frictional pairs. Among three textures of micro groove, micro quadrate protrusion and micro quadrate pit, micro quadrate pit obtains a lowest friction coefficient and wear amount. Also the proposed graphene-oil lubricant presents excellent improvement of tribological properties and wear resistance performance of spherical plain bearings.