The Surface-Roughness of Bearing-Surfaces and its Relation to Oil Film Thickness at Breakdown

Abstract

In this paper the relation of surface roughness of bearing surfaces to allowable film thickness is studied quantitatively with a simple Michell pad apparatus. The pads used were faced with white metal and ran against mild steel collars. The lubricants studied were water, soap solution, paraffin, and light oil. There was little difference in the frictional behaviour of any of the lubricants, except that the aqueous lubricants would not run with very finely finished steel surfaces. The onset of metal to metal contact was detected by an increase in the frictional drag, and also by the change in electrical conductivity between the pad and collar—an extremely sensitive method. The paper shows that there is, at any rate for this system, a quantitative relation between the total surface roughness of the rubbing surfaces and the calculated oil film thickness both at the initial metal to metal contact and seizure. Initial contact occurs when the outlet film thickness, calculated from normal hydrodynamic theory, falls to three times the maximum surface roughness and seizure occurs when it is double the average roughness.