Study on antifriction mechanism of surface textured elliptical bearings

Abstract The surface micro texture can improve the surface tribological properties of friction pairs. As a two oil wedge bearing, elliptical bearing can restrain the journal whirl and maintain the stable operation. In the manuscript, the surface micro-texture is combined with elliptical bearing, and the influence of micro-texture shape, micro-texture depth and micro-texture radius on oil film pressure, bearing capacity and friction coefficient of elliptical bearing is studied by theoretical calculation and experimental research. The results show that with the increase of micro-texture depth, the bearing capacity first increases and then decreases; and when the dimensionless texture depth is 0.03, the bearing friction is the lowest and the bearing capacity is the highest. When the dimensionless radius of the micro texture is v3, the lubrication performance of the bearing is the best. When the shape of micro-texture is circle or triangular, the lubrication performance of elliptical bearing can be improved.