The Effect on the Friction Forces of Big-End Bearing by the Aerated Lubricant

Lineal and angular movements of many engine components make the lubricant absorb air and the aerated lubricant greatly influences the clearance performance of contacting behaviors of engine components such as big-end bearing, cam and tappet, etc. This study investigates the behaviors of aerated lubricant in the gap between con-rod bearing and proceeding which is one of the most frictional energy consuming components in the engine. Our assumption for the analysis of aerated lubricant film is that the film formation is influenced by the two major factors. One is the density characteristics of the lubricant due to the volume change of lubricant by absorbing the bubbles and the other is the viscosity characteristics of the lubricant due to the surface tension of the bubble in the lubricant. In our investigation, it is found that these two major factors surprisingly increase the load capacity in certain ranges of bubble sizes and densities. Frictional forces are also influenced by the aerated bubble size and density, which eventually enlarge the shear resistance due the surface tension, Modified Reynolds' equation is developed for the computation of fluid film pressure with the effects of aeration ratio under the dynamic loading condition. From the calculated load capacity by solving modified Reynolds' equation, proceeding locus is computed with Mobility method at each time step.