Experimental Evidence on the Enhancement of Bearing Load Capacity by Localised Boundary Slip Effect

The lubrication performance of a bearing is determined by low friction and high load carrying capacity, which can be theoretically facilitated by partial-slip or heterogeneous-slip surface design. In the study, we numerically analysed a two-dimensional lubricated contact of a stationary slip slider surface and a moving non-slip plane by using the critical shear stress model. The proliferation of slip region on a slider surface with the relaxation in the critical shear stress criterion for boundary slip was examined. Insights were extracted from the results, and two partial-slip patterns, namely, lateral central stripe and inverse triangle, were proposed. These two new partial-slip patterns were validated numerically and experimentally through slider bearing tests, which demonstrate that the bearing load carrying capacity was enhanced beyond the predictions of the classical Reynolds equation.