Thermomechanical analysis of a dry shaft-multilayered bush tribosystem using the finite element method

Abstract

The thermomechanical analysis of a dry shaft-multilayered bush with a coating on the inner surface, has been accomplished by using the finite element method. Temperatures generated due to frictional heating at the shaft-bush interface and the resulting thermal stresses and deformations have been calculated in the tribosystem. A solid model of the tribosystem was generated using an eight-node three-dimensional first-order isoparametric heat transfer element for temperature analysis and an eight-node three-dimensional isoparametric brick element for stresses/deformation. The solid model was generated using Patran solid modeller software. Finite element analysis of the tribosystem for temperature, stresses and deformation was performed using Marc finite element software on a Cray X-MP supercomputer. The analysis was performed for various coating materials, coating thicknesses and thermal cooling boundary conditions. Higher temperatures are obtained at the shaft-bush interface when the coating material is of low thermal conductivity, e.g. Al2O3 and ZrO2. Results indicate that stresses can be lower in the coating if the coating thickness is lower for coating materials with thermal conductivity lower than the substrate. However, for coating materials with higher thermal conductivity, stresses are not altered appreciably. Thermal stresses and deformation are dependent on the elastic properties and thermal expansion coefficient of the coating material for a given geometry. © 1993.