Elastic Properties of the Fabric Liner and Their Influence on the Wear Depth of the Spherical Plain Bearing

Abstract

The major failure mechanism of typical spherical plain bearings with self-lubrication is the wear of the woven fabric liner, which is an orthotropic composite of different elastic properties in different directions. The elastic properties of the liner are required for studying the tribological properties of the spherical plain bearings. This paper aims to develop an elastic property analysis model suitable for three commonly used fabric liners through a theoretical analysis of the elastic properties in order to obtain the parameter expression of the compliance matrix. The influence of the elastic properties on the wear depth of the spherical plain bearings is further investigated. Suggestions are made for the optimal design of the spherical plain bearings based on wear reduction.