Bearings & Lubrication

Basic Concepts
Dr. Rajesh Sharma
Industrial Tribology Course
Jan 2010

Why are bearings required?

• To provide support to shaft.
• To maintain shaft alignment.
• To absorb load transmission.
• To reduces friction between the
rotating and stationary parts.

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 What is FRICTION?
• It is the resistance to relative motion
between two bodies in contact with
each other.
–When friction is present, heat is
produced.
–When friction is reduced, heat is
reduced.

Why Lubrication?
Because of friction, we need lubrication or
lubricants.
There are two ways to describe an oil
film between two sliding surfaces:
Oil molecules that tend to slide over
one another freely and;
Oil molecules cling to the metal
surfaces more readily than to each
other.

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 Lubricant layer in Fluid Film
Bearings
Journal
SLIDING METAL SURFACE

OIL MOLECULES
TEND TO FLOW OVER
EACH OTHER, AND
STICK TO METAL
SURFACES

Bearing
(fixed surface)

Why LUBRICATION?
• To reduce Friction
• To remove Heat
• To provide wedge
• To generate pressure
• To minimize wear

3
 When will oil Fail?
• Excessive Heat
• Contamination
–Debris
–Dust
• Overloading
• Poor quality oil

Basics of Bearing Materials

• Dissimilar materials have ability to slide
against each other with less friction than
similar materials.
– Babbitt: soft alloy of Lead, Antimony and
Tin (Pb, Sn, Sb).
– Sintered Copper-Lead (Cu, Sn, Pb).
– Aluminum (Al, Sn, Cu, Ni, Si, Cd).
– Cast Copper-Lead (Cu, Pb, Zn, Sn).

• Should be looking for concentrations of these

materials on the oil analysis reports and
responding accordingly.

4
 Desirable Conditions for
Bearing Material
• Load capacity
• Various Conditions
• Conformability
• Soft enough to adjust to minor irregularities
• Embedability
• Able to gulp small amounts of dirt

• Compatibility
• Slippery

• Corrosion resistant
• Sour Gas

Bearing Selection
While selecting a bearing, some of the
factors taken into account, include:
Rotating Speed.
Load Capability.
Lubrication System.
Life Requirement.
Shaft Material & Process Fluid.
Operating Conditions.

5
 Bearing Types

Journal Thrust
(Radial Load) (Axial Load)

6
 Objectives and Performance of
Bearings
• The bearing design objective
– To establish and maintain an oil film
between the surfaces in contact
under various load conditions.
• The bearing performance
– is greatly enhanced by the addition of
lubrication between the moving parts
and bearing surfaces.

Journal Bearing Working

At Rest At Start-up During Normal

Operation

7
Causes of Bearing Damage
• Dirt and Dust/Debris (45%)
• Wrong assembly (15%)
• Misalignment (13%)
• Lack of Lubrication (11%)
• Overloading (10%)
• Corrosion (5%)
• Others (1%)

Journal

Oil Flow

Bearing

Clearance Dirt Particles

8
 Displacement due to Babbit “healing”
Imbedded Material over dirt particles

Journal

Bearing

Particles too large

to enter in clearance
Particulate Contaminants

Particle caught Surface dented,

cracking initialized

Hard Surface

9
After 'N' cycles,
cracking spreads Surface fails

Hard Surface

Normal wear

10
 MISALIGNMENT

FATIGUE PATTERN

FOREIGN PARTICLES

11
 Over
heating

Embedding

Questions

12