Refined simulation of friction power loss in crank shaft slider bearings considering wear in the mixed lubrication regime

Friction reduction is a fundamental factor in decreasing fuel consumption of internal combustion engines. During the design stage of the engine the simulation of friction in the crank mechanism plays a vital role to develop optimum solutions. Due to the interaction of oil and elastic structures with rough surfaces in slider bearings, complex simulation models have to be used for representing the relevant physical behavior. The following article is focused on crank shaft slider bearings of large engines. ticle describes a procedure evaluated by measurements showing how to model wear profiles of slider bearings to reach a high quality friction forecast. A fundamental influencing factor of bearing friction is given by the mixed lubrication regime and it is considered in the simulation model as part of asperity contact friction and hydrodynamic friction. Further effects result from the compliance in radial and width directions of the bearing structure and the wear of the bearing surface. Furthermore, the specific operating conditions of the slider bearing such as load, temperature, shaft speed and oil characteristics are essential and have to be taken into account. jective of this investigation is to propose the wear profile of the bearing surface for the simulation model to be treated iteratively, where simulation results for the amount of mixed lubrication are successively assessed. For this purpose an iterative procedure is introduced and validated by measurements on a slider bearing test rig. plied simulation method is based on elastic multi-body systems; the lubrication film contact is calculated based on Reynolds differential equation via the pressure balance calculated iteratively in the time domain. The model accounting for the mixed lubrication regime is based on the theory of Greenwood and Tripp.