Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T08:32:09.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cavitation wear in plain bearing: Case study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2005

Yan-Ming Chen
Affiliation:
Département Matériaux et Surfaces, CETIM, 52 Av. Félix-Louat, 60300 Senlis, France
Jacques Mongis
Affiliation:
Département Matériaux et Surfaces, CETIM, 52 Av. Félix-Louat, 60300 Senlis, France
Get access

Abstract

Cavitation erosion is a current wear type in hydraulic turbines, on pump impellers, on ship propellers, valves, heat-exchanger tubes and other hydraulic structures in contact with high-velocity liquids subjected to pressure changes. Much effort has been done to optimise the design and operating parameters in order to avoid cavitation wear for the equipment. But, this type of wear has also been observed in mechanical devices which such as plain bearings, seals, orifices in which fluid goes through severe restrictions. Cavitation damage may occur when surfaces in contact with fluid are subjected to vibrations, e.g.: water-cooled Diesel-engine cylinder liner. Sometimes, cavitation can initiate other types of wear such as adhesion or abrasion because of wear particles produced at the friction interface, making the failure analysis more difficult.Cavitation wear mechanisms were showed through three industrial examples. The first one is a hydrodynamic plain bearing which was heavily damaged by cavitation wear due to flow instability. The second one concerns a low speed translating plain bearing. Firstly, abrasion traces were observed on the contact surface. But a deeper study showed that solid particles produced by cavitation wear had been the main cause of the abrasion wear. The last example presents several cases of cavitation damage in oil lubricated plain bearing observed in medium/slow speed diesel engine for marine or power station applications. Because of fluctuation of radial force from crankshaft and instability of lubricant flow, variation of oil pressure can be sufficient to produce bubble inception, collapse and microjet formation process.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© AFM, EDP Sciences, 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

J.P. Franc, F. Avellan, B. Belahadji, J.L. Billard, D. Fréchou, D.H. Fruman, L. Briançon-Marjollet, A. Karimi, J.L. Kuency, J.M. Michel, La cavitation, mécanismes physiques et aspects industriels, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1995
G. Lessaffre, Y.M. Chen, CETIM Report N° 1D1230, 2001
Hansson, C.M., Cavitation erosion, ASM HANDBOOK 18 (1990) 214220
C.M. Preece, Cavitation erosion, Treatise on materials science and technology, volume 16, Academic Press, 1979, pp. 249–305
L. Erdmann-Jesnitzer, Erosion, wear and interfaces with corrosion, American society for testing and materials, 1974, pp. 171–196
B. Vyas, C.M. Preece, Erosion, wear and interfaces with corrosion, American society for testing and materials, 1974, pp. 77–105
Vyas, B., Hansson, The cavitation erosion-corrosion of stainless steel, Corrosion science 130 (1991) 761770
Grein, De la cavitation : une vue d'ensemble, Revue technique Sulzer, n° recherches, 1974, pp. 87–112
Steller, Krzysztofowicz, Reymann, Erosion, wear and interfaces with corrosion, American society for testing and materials, 1974, pp. 152–170
Berthe, Cavitation and film rupture in a lubrificated contact and its relation to surface degradations, Cavitation and related phenomena in lubrification, Proceedings of the first Leeds-Lyon symposium, Dowson et al. (ed.), 1975, pp. 185–188
Summers-Smith, Wilson, Barwell, Lidgitt, Berthe, Conway-Jones, Johnson, Cavitation damage, Cavitation and related phenomena in lubrification, Proceedings of the first Leeds-Lyon symposium, Dowson et al. (ed.), 1975, pp. 198–217
Okada, Iwamoto, Sano, Fundamental, studies on cavitation erosion, Bulletin of the JSME 20(147) (1977) 10671075
Palhan, Effect, of the stress level on cavitation erosion rate, Wear 45(2) (1977) 151160
Rao, Buckley, Cavitation, erosion size scale effects, Wear 96 (1984) 239253
Karimi, Avellan, Comparison, of erosion mecanisms in differents types of cavitation, Wear 113(3) (1986) 305322
Karimi, Maamouri, Microscopic, study of cavitation behaviour in copper and Cu-5,7 wt %Al since crystals, Wear 139(1) (1990) 149169
Rood, E.P., Review mechanisms of cavitation inception, J. Fluids Eng. (ASME) 113(2) (1991) 163165 CrossRef
Ahmed, S.M., Investigation of the temperature effects on induced impact pressure and cavitation erosion, Wear 218 (1998) 119127 CrossRef
Richmann, Mac Naughton, Correlation, of cavitation behavior with mechanical properties of metals, Wear 140(1) (1990) 6382
Wilson, Cavitation damage in plain bearings, Cavitation and related phenomena in lubrification, Proceedings of the first Leeds-Lyon symposium, Dowson et al. (ed.), 1975, pp. 177–183
James, Erosion, damage in engine beaings, Tribology Int. 8(4) (1976) 161170
Garner, James, Warriner, Cavitation, erosion damage in engine bearings: theory and practice, J. Eng. power (ASME) 102(4) (1980) 847857
Blount, James, Cavitation erosion damage in Diesel engine main bearings, Tribology of reciprocating engines, proceedings of the 9th Leeds-Lyon symposium, Dowson et al. (ed.), 1983, pp. 297–303
Gülich, , Rösch, , L'érosion de cavitation dans les pompes centrifuges, Revue technique Sulzer 70(1) (1988) 2833
Gülich, Diagnosis, of cavitation in centrifugal pumps, World pumps 308 (1992) 1520
Canavellis, Grison, Aspects, industriels de la cavitation dans les pompes, Revue française de mécanique 4 (1986) 171181
Sloteman, Avoiding, cavitation in the suction stage of high-energy pumps, World pumps 348 (1995) 1048
Chan, W.K., Correlation between cavitation type and cavitation erosion in centrifugal pumps, Int. J. heat and fluid flow 11(3) (1990) 269271 CrossRef
Hunt, , Ryde-Weller, , Asmead, , Cavitation between meshing gear teeth, Wear 71(1) (1981) 6578 CrossRef