Effects of pore size on the lubrication properties of porous polyimide retainer material

Wenbin CHEN; Wenzhong WANG; Pengzhe ZHU; Xiangyu GE

doi:10.1007/s40544-022-0670-1

Friction 2023, 11(8): 1419-1429 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0670-1

Research Article |

Open Access | Issue | Published: 16 January 2023

Effects of pore size on the lubrication properties of porous polyimide retainer material

Show Author's Information Hide Author's Information Wenbin CHEN, Wenzhong WANG, Pengzhe ZHU, Xiangyu GE(

)

School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

Keywords:

pore size, porous polyimide (PI) material, oil-impregnated material, lubrication property

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CHEN W, WANG W, ZHU P, et al. Effects of pore size on the lubrication properties of porous polyimide retainer material. Friction, 2023, 11(8): 1419-1429. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0670-1

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Abstract

An oil-impregnated porous polyimide (PI) retainer is used in space rolling bearings to improve the lubrication performance, which depends on the release of lubricant from the pores, and therefore is closely related to the pore size. To study the effect of pore size, in this work, PI materials with different pore sizes were prepared by preheating the retainer tube billet during the limit pressing process, and then the friction tests were conducted with the ball-on-ring mode. The results show that the applied load deforms the pores, allowing the lubricant to be squeezed out from the pore; the centrifugal effect induced by rotation also makes the lubricant migrate out of the pore. Therefore, for the same pore sizes, the friction coefficients decrease with the increasing loads and rotation speeds. In addition, it was found that there exists an optimal pore size for the best lubrication properties of porous PI material. Furthermore, the optimal pore size should be larger for lubricants with high viscosity. The microscopic mechanism for lubricant outflow from pores is clarified by molecular dynamic simulations. The insights gained in this study can guide the preparation of oil-impregnated porous retainers under different working conditions.

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About this article

Effects of pore size on the lubrication properties of porous polyimide retainer material

Show Author's information Hide Author's Information Wenbin CHEN, Wenzhong WANG, Pengzhe ZHU, Xiangyu GE(

)

School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

Abstract

Keywords: pore size, porous polyimide (PI) material, oil-impregnated material, lubrication property

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Publication history

Received: 07 April 2022

Revised: 01 June 2022

Accepted: 23 June 2022

Published: 16 January 2023

Issue date: August 2023

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2141243 and 52175158). The simulation results described in this paper are obtained on the China National Grid (http://www.cngrid.org)/China Scientific Computing Grid (http://test.cngrid.org).

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