4.0 4.

BEARING OUTCOMES The overall course objective is to provide pertinent information to improve the performance of rolling element bearings, which improves the reliability of rotating equipment. At the completion of the course, participants will understand: The function of a bearing The factors effecting the performance of rolling element bearings - Bearing quality - Operating environment - Installation - Maintenance practices Components, terminology, and types of rolling element bearings The bearing numbering system and significance of prefix and suffix characters

4.2

THEORY Any bearing can be simply defined as a support or guide which at the same time allows

relative movement to take place between two bodies. In a diesel engine, the principal bearings are those which allow rotation of the crankshaft about its own longitudinal axis in the main engine entablature, and those between the connecting rod and crankshaft. In modern engine terminology a bearing has come to mean the component fitted between the journal and either the main bearing housing or the connecting rod, the shaft being supported in the bearing via an oil film. Figure 4.1 indicates the interaction between the various components in any engine bearing assembly, and the environment within which the bearing system must operate1. The co-operating surface, the lubricant and the environment all place constraints on the bearing, the resulting design usually being a compromise between various conflicting requirements. In relation to the bearing itself, the choice is usually restricted to material and geometry. However, environmental factors have to be taken into serious consideration at the design stage if a reliable system is to be achieved.

Figure 4.1

4.3

Friction Bearing Plane bearing or a friction bearing is the simplest type of bearing. Just comprising a bearing surface and no rolling elements. Plain bearings, in general, are : the least expensive type of bearing compact and lightweight have a high load-carrying capacity.

4.3.1 Design The design of a plain bearing depends on the type of motion the bearing must provide. The three types of motions possible are:

Journal (friction, radial or rotary) bearing: This is the most common type of plain bearing. It is simply a shaft rotating in a bearing. In locomotive and railroad car applications a journal bearing specifically referred to the plain bearing once used at the ends of the axles of railroad wheel sets, enclosed by journal boxes.

Linear bearing: This bearing provides linear motion; it may take the form of a circular bearing and shaft or any other two matching surfaces.

Thrust bearing: A thrust bearing provides a bearing surface for forces acting axial to the shaft. Integral Integral plain bearings are built into the object of use. It is a hole that has been prepared into a bearing surface. Industrial integral bearings are usually made from cast iron or babbitt and a hardened steelshaft is used in the bearing. Integral bearings are not as common because bushings are easy to accommodate and can be replaced if necessary. Depending on the material, an integral bearing may be less expensive but it cannot be replaced. If an integral bearing wears out then the item may be replaced or reworked to accept a bushing. Integral bearings were very common in 19thcentury machinery, but became progressively less common as interchangeable manufacture permeated the industry. An example of a common integral plain bearing is the hinge, which is both a thrust bearing and a journal bearing. Bushing A bushing, also known as a bush, is an independent plain bearing that is inserted into a housing to provide a bearing surface for rotary applications; this is the most common form of a plain bearing. Common designs include solid (sleeve and flanged), split, and clenched bushings. A sleeve, split, or clenched bushing is only a "sleeve" of material

with an inner diameter (ID), outer diameter (OD), and length. The difference between the three types is that a solid sleeved bushing is solid all the way around, a split bushing has a cut along its length, and a clenched bearing is similar to a split bushing but with a clench across the cut. A flanged bushing is a sleeve bushing with a flange at one end extending radially outward from the OD. The flange is used to positively locate the bushing when it is installed or to provide a thrust bearing surface. Sleeve bearings of inch dimensions are almost exclusively dimensioned using the SAE numbering system. The numbering system uses the format -XXYY-ZZ, where XX is the ID in sixteenths of an inch, YY is the OD in sixteenths of an inch, and ZZ is the length in eights of an inch. Metric sizes also exist. A linear bushing is not usually pressed into a housing, but rather secured with a radial feature. Two such examples include two retaining rings, or a ring that is molded onto the OD of the bushing that matches with a groove in the housing. This is usually a more durable way to retain the bushing, because the forces acting on the bushing could press it out. The thrust form of a bushing is conventionally called a thrust washer. Two piece Two-piece plain bearings, known as full bearings in industrial machinery, are commonly used for larger diameters, such as crankshaft bearings. The two halves are called shells. There are various systems used to keep the shells located. The most common method is a tab on the parting line edge that correlates with a notch in the housing to prevent axial movement after installation. For large, thick shells a button stop or dowel pin is used. The button stop is screwed to the housing, while the dowel pin keys the two shells together. Another less common method uses a dowel pin that keys the shell to the housing through a hole or slot in the shell. The distance from one parting edge to the other is slightly larger than the corresponding distance in the housing so that a light amount of pressure is required to install the bearing. This keeps the bearing in place as the two halves of the housing are installed. Finally, the shell's circumference is also slightly larger than the housing circumference so that when the two halves are bolted together the bearing crushes slightly. This creates a large amount of

radial force around the entire bearing which keeps it from spinning. It also forms a good interface for heat to travel out of the bearings into the housing.

4.4

Fluid Coated Bearing Support the bearings loads solely on a thin layer of liquid or gas Classified as fluid dynamic bearings or hydrostatic bearings Externally pressurized fluid bearings, where the fluid is usually oil, water or air. The pressurization is done by pump Bearing rely on the high speed of the journal self-pressurizing the fluid in a wedge between the space. Bearing are frequently used in high load, high speed or high precision application. Ordinary ball bearings have short life or high noise and vibration.

Fluid bearings use a thin layer of liquid or gas fluid between the bearing faces, typically sealed around or under the rotating shaft. There are two principal ways of getting the fluid into the bearing:

In fluid static, hydrostatic and many gas or air bearings, the fluid is pumped in through an orifice or through a porous material.

In fluid-dynamic bearings, the bearing rotation sucks the fluid on to the inner surface of the bearing, forming a lubricating wedge under or around the shaft.

Hydrostatic bearings rely on an external pump. The power required by that pump contributes to system energy loss, just as bearing friction otherwise would. Better seals can reduce leak rates and pumping power, but may increase friction.

Hydrodynamic bearings rely on bearing motion to suck fluid into the bearing, and may have high friction and short life at speeds lower than design, or during starts and stops. An external pump or secondary bearing may be used for startup and shutdown to prevent damage to the hydrodynamic bearing. A secondary bearing may have high friction and short operating life, but good overall service life if bearing starts and stops are infrequent.

Hydrodynamic lubrication Hydrodynamic lubrication essential elements: A lubricant, which must be a viscous fluid. Hydrodynamic flow behavior of fluid between bearing and journal. The surfaces between which the fluid films move must be convergent.

Hydrodynamic (Full Film) Lubrication is obtained when two mating surfaces are completely separated by a cohesive film of lubricant. The thickness of the film thus exceeds the combined roughness of the surfaces. The coefficient of friction is lower than with boundary-layer lubrication. Hydrodynamic lubrication prevents wear in moving parts, and metal to metal contact is prevented. Hydrodynamic lubrication requires thin, converging fluid films. These fluids can be liquid or gas, so long as they exhibit viscosity. In computer components, like a hard disk, heads are supported by hydrodynamic lubrication in which the fluid film is the atmosphere. The scale of these films is on the order of micrometers. Their convergence creates pressures normal to the surfaces they contact, forcing them apart. 3 Types of bearings include:

Self-acting: Film exists due to relative motion. Squeeze film: Film exists due to relative normal motion.

Externally pressurized: Film exists due to external pressurization.

Conceptually the bearings can be thought of as two major geometric classes: bearingjournal (anti-friction), and plane-slider (friction). The Reynolds equations can be used to derive the governing principles for the fluids. Note that when gases are used, their derivation is much more involved. The thin films can be thought to have pressure and viscous forces acting on them. Because there is a difference in velocity there will be a difference in the surface traction vectors. Because of mass conservation we can also assume an increase in pressure, making the body forces different.

Hydrodynamic lubrication characteristics: Fluid film at the point of minimum thickness decreases in thickness as the load increases Pressure within the fluid mass increases as the film thickness decreases due to load Pressure within the fluid mass is greatest at some point approaching minimum clearance and lowest at the point of maximum clearance (due to divergence) Viscosity increases as pressure increases (more resistance to shear) Film thickness at the point of minimum clearance increases with the use of more viscous fluids With same load, the pressure increases as the viscosity of fluid increases With a given load and fluid, the thickness of the film will increase as speed is increased Fluid friction increases as the viscosity of the lubricant becomes greater

Hydrodynamic condition Fluid velocity: Fluid velocity depends on velocity of the journal or rider Increase in relative velocity tends towards a decrease in eccentricity of journal bearing centers

This is accompanied by greater minimum film thickness

Hydrodynamic condition Load: Increase in load decreases minimum film thickness Also increases pressure within the film mass to provide a counteracting force Pressure acts in all directions, hence it tends to squeeze the oil out of the ends of the bearing Increase in pressure increases fluid viscosity

Bearing characteristic number: Since viscosity, velocity, and load determine the characteristics of a hydrodynamic condition, a bearing characteristic number was developed based on the effects of these on film thickness. Increase in velocity increases min. film thickness Increase in viscosity increases min. film thickness Increase in load decreases min. film thickness

Therefore Viscosity velocity/unit load = a dimensionless number = C C is known as the bearing characteristic number. The value of C, to some extent, gives an indication of whether there will be hydrodynamic lubrication or not 4.4.1 Characteristics And Principles Of Operation Fluid bearings can be relatively cheap compared to other bearings with a similar load rating. The bearing can be as simple as two smooth surfaces with seals to keep in the working fluid. In contrast, a conventional rolling-element bearing may require many high-precision rollers with complicated shapes. Hydrostatic and many gas bearings do have the complication and expense of external pumps. Most fluid bearings require little or no maintenance, and have almost unlimited life. Conventional rolling-element bearings usually have shorter life and require

regular maintenance. Pumped hydrostatic and aerostatic (gas) bearing designs retain low friction down to zero speed and need not suffer start/stop wear, provided the pump does not fail. Fluid bearings generally have very low frictionfar better than mechanical bearings. One source of friction in a fluid bearing is the viscosity of the fluid. Hydrostatic gas bearings are among the lowest friction bearings. However, lower fluid viscosity also typically means fluid leaks faster from the bearing surfaces, thus requiring increased power for pumps or friction from seals. When a roller or ball is heavily loaded, fluid bearings have clearances that change less under load (are "stiffer") than mechanical bearings. It might seem that bearing stiffness, as with maximum design load, would be a simple function of average fluid pressure and the bearing surface area. In practice, when bearing surfaces are pressed together, the fluid outflow is constricted. This significantly increases the pressure of the fluid between the bearing faces. As fluid bearing faces can be comparatively larger than rolling surfaces, even small fluid pressure differences cause large restoring forces, maintaining the gap. However, in lightly loaded bearings, such as disk drives, the typical ball bearing stiffnesses are ~10^7 MN/m. Comparable fluid bearings have stiffness of ~10^6 MN/m. Because of this, some fluid bearings, particularly hydrostatic bearings, are deliberately designed to preload the bearing to increase the stiffness. Fluid bearings often inherently add significant damping. This helps attenuate resonances at the gyroscopic frequencies of journal bearings (sometimes called conical or rocking modes). It is very difficult to make a mechanical bearing which is atomically smooth and round; and mechanical bearings deform in high-speed operation due to centripetal force. In contrast, fluid bearings self-correct for minor imperfections. Fluid bearings are typically quieter and smoother (more consistent friction) than rollingelement bearings. For example, hard disks manufactured with fluid bearings have noise ratings for bearings/motors on the order of 2024 dB, which is a little more than the background noise of a quiet room. Drives based on rolling-element bearings are typically at least 4 dB noisier.Fluid bearings can be made with a lower NRRO (non repeatable run out) than a ball or rolling element

bearing. This can be critical in modern hard disk drive and ultra precision spindles.Tilting pad bearings are used as radial bearings for supporting and locating shafts in compressors. Disadvantages Overall power consumption is typically higher compared to ball bearings. Power consumption and stiffness or damping greatly vary with temperature, which complicates the design and operation of a fluid bearing in wide temperature range situations. Fluid bearings can catastrophically seize under shock situations. Ball bearings deteriorate more gradually and provide acoustic symptoms. Like cage frequency vibration in a ball bearing, the half frequency whirl is a bearing instability that generates eccentric precession which can lead to poor performance and reduced life. Fluid leakage; keeping fluid in the bearing can be a challenge. Oil fluid bearings are impractical in environments where oil leakage can be destructive or where maintenance is not economical. Fluid bearing "pads" often have to be used in pairs or triples to avoid the bearing tilting and losing the fluid from one side.

4.5

Rolling Bearing A rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing,[1] is a bearing which carries a load by placing rolling elements (such as balls or rollers) between two bearing rings. The relative motion of the pieces causes the round elements to roll with very little rolling resistance and with little sliding. One of the earliest and best-known rolling-element bearings are sets of logs laid on the ground with a large stone block on top. As the stone is pulled, the logs roll along the ground with little sliding friction. As each log comes out the back, it is moved to the front where the block then rolls on to it. It is possible to imitate such a bearing by placing several pens or

pencils on a table and placing an item on top of them. See "bearings" for more on the historical development of bearings. A rolling element rotary bearing uses a shaft in a much larger hole, and cylinders called y fill the space between the shaft and hole. As the shaft turns, each roller acts as the logs in the above example. However, since the bearing is round, the rollers never fall out from under the load. Rolling-element bearings have the advantage of a good tradeoff between cost, size, g capacity, durability, accuracy, friction, and so on. Other bearing designs are often better on one specific attribute, but worse in most other attributes, although fluid bearings can sometimes simultaneously outperform on carrying capacity, durability, accuracy, friction, rotation rate and sometimes cost. Only plain bearings are used as widely as rolling-element bearings.

4.5.1 Design Typical rolling-element bearings range in size from 10 mm diameter to a few metres diameter, and have load-carrying capacity from a few tens of grams to many thousands of tonnes. A particularly common kind of rolling-element bearing is the ball bearing. The bearing has inner and outer races between which balls roll. Each race features a groove usually shaped so the ball fits slightly loose. Thus, in principle, the ball contacts each race across a very narrow area. However, a load on an infinitely small point would cause infinitely high contact pressure. In practice, the ball deforms (flattens) slightly where it contacts each race much as a tire flattens where it contacts the road. The race also yields slightly where each ball presses against it. Thus, the contact between ball and race is of finite size and has finite pressure. Note also that the deformed ball and race do not roll entirely smoothly because different parts of the ball are moving at different speeds as it rolls. Thus, there are opposing forces and sliding motions at each ball/race contact. Overall, these cause bearing drag.

Most rolling-element bearings feature cages. The cages reduce friction, wear, and bind by preventing the elements from rubbing against each other. Caged roller bearings were invented by John Harrison in the mid-18th century as part of his work on chronometers. Types of rolling elements Cylindrical roller

Common roller bearings use cylinders of slightly greater length than diameter. Roller bearings typically have higher load capacity than ball bearings, but a lower capacity and higher friction under loads perpendicular to the primary supported direction. If the inner and outer races are misaligned, the bearing capacity often drops quickly compared to either a ball bearing or a spherical roller bearing. Roller bearings are the earliest known type of rolling-element-bearing, dating back to at least 40 BC.

Needle

Needle roller bearings use very long and thin cylinders. Often the ends of the rollers taper to points, and these are used to keep the rollers captive, or they may be hemispherical and not captive but held by the shaft itself or a similar arrangement. Since the rollers are thin, the outside diameter of the bearing is only slightly larger than the hole in the middle. However, the smalldiameter rollers must bend sharply where they contact the races, and thus the bearing fatigues relatively quickly.

Tapered roller

Tapered roller bearings use conical rollers that run on conical races. Most roller bearings only take radial or axial loads, but tapered roller bearings support both radial and axial loads, and generally can carry higher loads than ball bearings due to greater contact area. Taper roller bearings are used, for example, as the wheel bearings of most wheeled land vehicles. The downsides to this bearing is that due to manufacturing complexities, tapered roller bearings are usually more expensive than ball bearings; and additionally under heavy loads the tapered roller is like a wedge and bearing loads tend to try to eject the roller; the force from the collar which keeps the roller in the bearing adds to bearing friction compared to ball bearings.

Spherical roller

Spherical roller bearings have an outer ring with an internal spherical shape. The rollers are thicker in the middle and thinner at the ends. Spherical roller bearings can thus adjust to support both static and dynamic misalignment. However, spherical rollers are difficult to produce and thus expensive, and the bearings have higher friction than an ideal cylindrical or tapered roller bearing since there will be a certain amount of sliding between rolling elements and rings.

Thrust Loadings

Thrust bearings are used to support axial loads, such as vertical shafts. Commonly spherical, conical or cylindrical rollers are used; but non-rolling element bearings such as hydrostatic or magnetic bearings see some use where particularly heavy loads or low friction is needed. Radial loadings Rolling element bearings are often used for axles due to their low rolling friction. For light loads, such as bicycles, ball bearings are often used. For heavy loads and where the loads can greatly change during cornering, such as cars and trucks, tapered rolling bearings are used. Linear motion Linear motion roller-element bearings are typically designed for either shafts or flat surfaces. Flat surface bearings often consist of rollers and are mounted in a cage, which is then placed between the two flat surfaces; a common example is drawer-support hardware. Rollerelement bearing for a shaft use bearing balls in a groove designed to recirculate them from one

end to the other as the bearing moves; as such, they are called linear ball bearings or recirculating bearings.

4.6

DISCUSSION Require large supply of lubricating oil, they are suitable only for relative low temperature

and speed and starting resistance is much greater than running resistance due to slow build up of lubricant film around the bearing surface.

4.7 CONCLUSION Plain bearing are cheap to produce and have noiseless operation. They can be easily machined, occupy small radial space and have vibration damping properties. Also they can cope with tapped foreign matter.