Adaptive finite element simulation of wear evolution in radial sliding bearings

Abstract This article employs an adaptive wear modeling method to study the wear progress in radial sliding bearings contacting with a rotary shaft. Mixed Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation has been used to simulate the contact condition between the bearing and the shaft, and the local wear evolution is modeled using the Archard equation. In the developed wear processor algorithm, not only remeshing is performed on the contact elements, but also is executed for their proximity elements. In this way the wear simulation becomes independent of the size of the contact elements. Validation was done for a laminated polymeric composite bearing. The composite has been modeled as a linear orthotropic material. The wear coefficients were obtained from flat-on-flat experiments and were applied as pressure and velocity dependent parameters in the wear processor. Finally, the effect of the clearance on the wear of the radial bearings has been studied numerically. The simulations also demonstrate how the contact pressure evolves during the wear process, and how the clearance influences this evolution.