On the influence of particle concentration in a lubricant and its rheological properties on the bearing behavior

Vibration and wear debris analyses are the two main conditions monitoring techniques for machinery maintenance and fault diagnosis. In addition, numerical simulation can provide useful tools to assess the proper functioning of industrial machines. We use different suspension theories with a concern of the effect of solid particles liquid lubricant itself on bearing behavior. We consider both simple models based on the Einstein's mixture theory and a micropolar fluid theory, which is characterized by the presence of suspended rigid micro-structured particles. We suppose in this study that there are no abrasion and no wear (which are not beneficial for the contact performances) due to the presence of particles. Thus in this case we found theoretically that the presence of rigid particles in the lubricant increases the effective viscosity which enhances the load-carrying capacity as well as the minimum film thickness.