Tribology in machine components

Abstract

Proper tribological practices are extremely important from the view point of reliable and maintenance free operation of machine components. Friction, wear, and lubrication are three main domains of tribology. Proper interfacing among these domains is essential to have a better performance of machine components. Bearings are most critical machine elements which imparts constrained relative motion between two machine components. Bearings either have sliding contact or rolling contact. In the present chapter different types of bearings have been discussed. The main focus of this chapter is on hydrostatic/hybrid fluid-film journal bearings. The components of the hydrostatic/hybrid bearing system that have significant impact on bearing performance have been described. The analysis of fluid-film journal bearings and their performance characteristics parameters have been discussed. The chapter also discusses some current research trends in the design of hydrostatic/hybrid journal bearings. In concluding section the chapter discusses some of the results pertaining to the current issues of research, which needs to be considered for an accurate and realistic design of hydrostatic/hybrid journal bearing system, such as the number of recesses, type of restrictor, shape of recess, influence of turbulence and flexibility, etc.