| 1. |
- Baart, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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Contaminant migration in the vicinity of a grease lubricated bearing seal contact
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of tribology. - : ASME International. - 0742-4787 .- 1528-8897. ; 133:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lubricating grease is commonly used for lubricating sealed and greased for life rolling element bearings. This grease also provides an additional sealing function to protect the bearing against ingress of contaminants. In this work the sealing function of lubricating grease in the vicinity of the seal lip contact has been studied experimentally by measuring the migration of spherical fluorescent contaminant particles in the vicinity of the contact, as a function of shaft speed and lubricant type. The experimental results reveal that in some greases contaminant particles migrate towards the sealing contact where the shear rate reaches its highest value. However, for other greases, Newtonian base oils, and elastic fluids, this is not necessarily the case and contaminant particles consistently migrate away from the sealing contact. Various physical phenomena have been investigated to explain the difference in migration behavior. It is concluded that migration towards the sealing contact is driven by the viscosity gradient and migration away from the sealing contact is related to the Weissenberg number. The sealing function of grease in the vicinity of the sealing contact is due to the migration of contaminant particles. The migration reduces the probability of particles to reach the sealing and bearing contacts.
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| 2. |
- Baart, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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Contaminant particle migration in a double restriction seal
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the STLE Annual Meeting and Exhibition 2013, Detroit MI, USA.. - : STLE. ; , s. 125-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Microparticle image velocimetry (μPIV) is used to measure the grease velocity profile in small seal-like geometries and the radial migration of contaminant particles is predicted. In the first part, the influence of shaft speed, grease type, and temperatures on the flow of lubricating greases in a narrow double restriction sealing pocket is evaluated. Such geometries can be found in, for example, labyrinth-type seals. In a wide pocket the velocity profile is one-dimensional and the Herschel-Bulkley model is used. In a narrow pocket, it is shown by the experimental results that the side walls have a significant influence on the grease flow, implying that the grease velocity profile is two-dimensional. In this area, a single empirical grease parameter for the rheology is sufficient to describe the velocity profile.In the second part, the radial migration of contaminant particles through the grease is evaluated. Centrifugal forces acting on a solid spherical particle are calculated from the grease velocity profile. Consequently, particles migrate to a larger radius and finally settle when the grease viscosity becomes large due to the low shear rate. This behavior is important for the sealing function of the grease in the pocket and relubrication
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Baart, Pieter
(författare)
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Grease lubrication in radial lip seals
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Rolling element bearings contain seals to keep lubricant inside and contamination outside the bearing system. These bearings are more often lubricated with grease rather than oil. Much knowledge is available on oil lubricated seals but a good understanding of grease lubricated seals is lacking.In this thesis, first the lubrication, pumping and sealing mechanisms of oil and grease lubricated radial lip seals have been discussed. The first paper reviews the public literature. This review has shown that very little is known on grease lubrication in radial lip seals. The primary lubrication, sealing and pumping mechanisms found for oil lubricated seals are micro-elastohydrodynamic lubrication between the seal and shaft roughness and tangential deformations of the seal surface for a pumping action. These mechanisms are important but it is felt that other effects have to be included for explaining differences seen in grease lubricated radial lip seals. One effect in grease lubrication is the normal stress effect which is described in the second paper. It is shown that the grease rheology and especially the normal stress effect play a significant role in film formation in grease lubricated seals. The model predicts that 50 to 60% of the load carrying capacity can be generated by the normal stress effect for a low contact pressure bearing seal depending on the operating conditions. The oil bleed model presented in the third paper describes the release of oil from the grease. This model is based on viscous flow through the porous soap microstructure and the driving force is the pressure gradient resulting from centripetal forces. It is shown that the soap fibre distribution has to become anisotropic during oil bleed and the model has been validated with experiments at different temperatures and rotating speeds. The model can be used with good confidence for longer periods of time and can be used as input for replenishment models.
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| 5. |
- Baart, Pieter
(författare)
-
Grease lubrication mechanisms in bearing seals
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Rolling bearings contain seals to keep lubricant inside and contaminants outside the bearing system. These systems are often lubricated with grease; the grease acts as a lubricant for the bearing and seal and improves the sealing efficiency. In this thesis, the influence of lubricating grease on bearing seal performance is studied. Rheological properties of the grease, i.e. shear stress and normal stress difference, are evaluated and related to the lubricating and sealing performance of the sealing system. This includes the seal, grease and counterface. The grease velocity profile in the seal pocket in-between two sealing lips is dependent on the rheological properties of the grease. The velocity profile in a wide pocket is evaluated using a 1-dimensional model based on the Herschel-Bulkley model. The velocity profile in a narrow pocket, where the influence of the side walls on the velocity profile is significant, is measured using micro particle image velocimetry. Subsequently, the radial migration of contaminants into the seal pocket is modelled and related to the sealing function of the grease. Additionally, also migration in the axial direction is found in the vicinity of the sealing contact. Experimental results show that contaminant particles in different greases consistently migrate either away from the sealing contact or towards the sealing contact, also when the pumping rate of the seal can be neglected. Lubrication of the seal lip contact is dependent on several grease properties. A lubricant film in the sealing contact may be built up as in oil lubricated seals but normal stress differences in the grease within the vicinity of the contact may result in an additional lift force. The grease, which is being sheared in the vicinity of the contact, will also contribute to the frictional torque. It is important to maintain a lubricant film in the sealing contact to minimize friction and wear. Here the replenishment of oil separated from the grease, also referred to as oil bleed, is of crucial importance. A model is presented to predict this oil bleed based on oil flow through the porous grease thickener microstructure. The model is applied to an axial sealing contact and a prediction of the film thickness as a function of time is made. The work presented in the thesis gives a significant contribution to a better understanding of the influence of lubricating grease on the sealing system performance and seal lubrication conditions.
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| 6. |
- Baart, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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Non-newtonian effects on film formation in grease-lubricated radial lip seals
- 2010
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Ingår i: Tribology Transactions. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1040-2004 .- 1547-397X. ; 53:3, s. 308-318
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In existing models, the only lubricant property used for predicting film thickness in radial lip seals is the (base) oil viscosity. Lubricating greases show non-Newtonian behavior, and additional normal stress components develop that may contribute to the load-carrying capacity. This study investigates the shear rheology of greases and determines whether this "normal stress effect" in grease can significantly contribute to film formation in radial lip seals. First, the rheological behavior of grease is studied in a rotary plate-plate rheometer at small gaps of 25-500 μ m up to shear rates of 5 · 104 s-1. The rheology measurements are used for a rheology model that predicts the first normal stress difference in the grease. Second, a seal lip model was developed to predict the lift force generated by the normal stress effect that separates the seal from the shaft. The model results show that the load-carrying capacity depends very much on the operating conditions: lip geometry, speed, and temperature. The model predicts a lift force that is over 50% of the seal specific lip force for low-contact pressure-bearing seals. The model can easily be used in existing oil seal models and makes it possible to optimize seal design by utilizing the normal stress effect.
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| 7. |
- Baart, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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Non-Newtonian effects on film formation in grease lubricated radial lip seals
- 2009
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Ingår i: Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers annual meeting & exhibition 2009. - Red Hook, NY : Curran Associates, Inc.. - 9781615674374 ; , s. 140-142
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates the high shear rheology of grease and determines whether the "normal stress effect" can significantly contribute to film formation in radial lip seal applications. Rheology measurements and a rheology model for the grease have been developed to model the normal stress at high shear rates. Subsequently, a seal lip model is developed to predict lift forces, generated by the normal stress effect. The model predicts lift forces over 50% of the seals specific lip force for low contact pressure bearing seals.
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| 8. |
- Baart, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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Oil-bleeding model for lubricating grease based on viscous flow through a porous microstructure
- 2010
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Ingår i: Tribology Transactions. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1040-2004 .- 1547-397X. ; 53:3, s. 340-348
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the criteria in selecting lubricating grease for rolling-element bearing applications is its ability to bleed oil, sometimes called ogrease bleeding.o Oil bleeding is assumed to be the dominating mechanism supplying new oil to the rolling track for lubrication. In this study, a physical model has been developed to understand the relation between parameters that control oil bleeding. In the model, lubricating grease is described as a porous network, formed by the thickener fibers, that contains the base oil. This type of structure is confirmed by SEM and AFM images of a lithium complex grease showing a matrix of rigid fibers with random orientation. A relatively simple flow model based on Darcy's law for viscous flow in porous media and an anisotropic microstructure deformation model was developed. The model relates the pressure gradient, oil viscosity, thickener structure deformations, and permeability to the volumetric oil flow out of the thickener network. The permeability depends strongly on the thickener microstructure. The model was verified with experiments at a wide variety of temperatures and rotational speeds.
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| 9. |
- Baart, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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On the Normal Stress Effect in Grease-Lubricated Bearing Seals
- 2015
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Ingår i: Tribology & Lubrication Technology. - 1545-858X. ; 71:9, s. 52-58
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The film formation in lip seals, due to non-Newtonian rheology of the lubricant, has been a topic of speculation. Earlier work suggests that normal stresses in grease would be favorable for the film build-up between the seal lip and shaft or bearing ring. In the current paper we evaluate this earlier work and our earlier theoretical seal lip model with a series of experiments. We use a modified concentric cylinder geometry and a model fluid to study the fluid pressure distribution in the seal type geometry. The results are then related to grease lubricated seals and our earlier theoretical predictions. The present analysis shows that this earlier work and our earlier predictions are not correct and indicate that normal stresses in the grease pull the seal lip towards the shaft, increasing the contact pressure. However, normal stresses also ensure the presence of grease on the shaft or bearing inner ring which enhances replenishment of the sealing contact.
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| 10. |
- Baart, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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On the Normal Stress Effect in Grease-Lubricated Bearing Seals
- 2014
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Ingår i: Tribology Transactions. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1040-2004 .- 1547-397X. ; 57:5, s. 939-943
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The film formation in lip seals, due to non-Newtonian rheology of the lubricant, has been a topic of speculation. Earlier work suggests that normal stresses in grease would be favorable for the film build-up between the seal lip and shaft or bearing ring. In the current paper we evaluate this earlier work and our earlier theoretical seal lip model with a series of experiments. We use a modified concentric cylinder geometry and a model fluid to study the fluid pressure distribution in the seal type geometry. The results are then related to grease lubricated seals and our earlier theoretical predictions. The present analysis shows that this earlier work and our earlier predictions are not correct and indicate that normal stresses in the grease pull the seal lip towards the shaft, increasing the contact pressure. However, normal stresses also ensure the presence of grease on the shaft or bearing inner ring which enhances replenishment of the sealing contact.
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