Wear Behavior of a Bio-inspired Bearing for off-center Loads

Misalignment is one of the most common causes of wear in bush bearings. Design improvements have been proposed by many researchers. Unfortunately, it did not efficiently reduce the misalignment. Classic geometrical designs sometimes reach their limits. For this reason, a bio-inspired design is proposed to solve the impediment. In this article, a bio-inspired bearing suited to misalignment was tested and compared to a classical bush bearing. The contact pressures of both bearings were compared with static Finite Element (FE) simulations for off-center load. Due to the complex shape of the involved contact, the performances of both bearings were also studied over time. Their wear behaviors were predicted with a numerical method. The methodologies emplaced to simulate the wear were described in this paper. Particularly, the wear coefficient determination obtained by experimental testing was detailed. The pressure value, the contact zone and the wear depth were compared and discussed. The wear results for the classical bearing are in accordance with the literature. The simulations show a deeper wear on the classical bush bearing than on the bio-inspired bearing. This leads to a longer period of service life for the bio-inspired bearing.