Clearance and design optimization of bio-inspired bearings under off-center load

Abstract Wear due to over-pressure is a well-known phenomenon that appears on bush bearing under off-center load. In this context, this paper proposes a methodology to develop a new bearing inspired from a lamb elbow. This bio-inspired bearing could replace bush bearing from helicopter's system. The method starts with the analysis of the contact surfaces of the biological joint from 3D scans. That allowed to extract a revolute profile for the bio-inspired bearing. Finite element simulations were then realized to find the best clearance specification to reduce contact pressure. The bio-inspired bearing is after optimized using Design Of Experiments method.