The effect of wear on the frictional vibration suppression of water-lubricated rubber slat with/without surface texture

Abstract Water-lubricated rubber slat bearing is the key part of the propulsion shafting of an underwater vehicle. Under low speed, overload special conditions, the rubber slat of the bearing is easy to produce boundary lubrication or mixed lubrication state and induce friction self-excited vibration that produces chattering and squealing, especially rubber slat wear, which can seriously affect the concealment, reliability and occupant comfort of the underwater vehicle. To solve this problem, surface texture is built on the friction surface of the rubber slat to explore the influence of the wear of the rubber slat with/without surface texture on frictional vibration suppression mechanism, and discuss the factors affecting rubber slat wear. The influence of the wear of the rubber slat with surface texture on vibration suppression mechanism was researched in experiment under different testing conditions such as speed, load, etc., and compared with the no-textured rubber slat to evaluate the frictional vibration suppression level of two kinds of worn surfaces. Wear test results show that with the increase of test time, the friction moment and friction coefficient of textured rubber slat sample is declined by 15.5%, the average hourly rate of wear reduced by 23.3% than those of no-textured rubber slat one. But overall, the surface texture can accommodate the abrasive dust and water storage function, which can effectively improve the wet conditions between two friction surfaces, reduce the friction coefficient, and inhibit the form of the frictional force with high frequency component. It contributes to improve the suppression level of the high frequency frictional vibration of water-lubricated rubber slat bearing. In wear test, under special working conditions such as pressure 0.6 MPa, water temperature 40 °C and rotary speed 185 r/min, the friction coefficient, the maximum vibration amplitude and gross value of the textured slat sample are lower than those of no-textured one, and the abnormal vibration and squealing of the textured slats does not occur.