There are many tribological interfaces that are exposed to elevated temperatures. Typical examples are the interfaces of various moving assemblies, for examples in aerospace industry, power generation and metalworking processes. The exposure of materials to elevated temperatures results in highly complex interfaces due to changes in morphology, microstructure and mechanical properties coupled with the occurrence of oxidation and diffusion. All of these changes will influence the tribological behaviour of materials at elevated temperatures. Another major concern is lubrication at elevated temperatures since conventional lubricants do not perform at temperatures above ~300ºC. High strength steels are commonly used as structural reinforcements or energy absorbing systems in automobile applications due to their favourable strength to weight ratios. The high strength of these steels leads to several problems during forming such as poor formability, increased spring back, and tendency to work-harden. In view of these difficulties, high strength steels are usually formed at elevated temperatures with a view to facilitating forming and simultaneous hardening by quenching of complex shaped parts. A review of published literature has revealed that only a few studies pertaining to high temperature tribology (including those of hot metalworking) have been carried out so far. The understanding of the high temperature tribological behaviour of high strength steels and tool steel pairs is also highly inadequate. The aim of this work is therefore to obtain a better understanding of the friction and wear mechanisms of tool steel and high strength boron steel tribological pairs at elevated temperatures. The experimental studies were carried out by using a high temperature version of the Optimol SRV reciprocating friction and wear test machine. The tribological studies were performed at temperatures ranging from 40ºC to 800ºC. The experimental materials were tool steels of three different alloying compositions (with and without nitriding) and high strength boron steel (unhardened, hardened, with and without Al-Si coating). The results have shown that both friction and wear of tool steel and high strength steel pairs are temperature dependant. An increase in temperature has resulted in lower friction for all the material pairs. Tool wear increased when the temperature increased from 40 to 400ºC during sliding against uncoated high strength steel but remained unchanged when the temperature increased further to 800ºC. When sliding against Al-Si coated high strength steel, tool wear increased with increasing temperature. Plasma nitriding of tool steels has been effective in reducing friction as well as in providing protection against severe adhesive wear. The Al-Si coating on the high strength steel has resulted in high friction at low temperatures and low friction at elevated temperatures. It has also shown an increased wear resistance at elevated temperatures. The coating undergoes significant surface morphological changes when exposed to elevated temperatures which are likely to influence its tribological behaviour. Hardening of the high strength steel has resulted in decreased friction at all temperatures. It led to higher tool wear at low temperatures and lower tool wear at elevated temperatures / Godkänd; 2007; 20070820 (pafi)

Interacting surfaces are frequently found in mechanical systems and components. A lubricant is often added between the surfaces to separate them from mechanical contact in order to increase life and performance of the contacting surfaces. In this work various aspects of hydrodynamic lubrication are investigated theoretically. This is where interacting surfaces are completely separated by a fluid film which is often the desired operating condition of machine components when wear and friction is to be reduced. Different flow regimes can be identified within the scope of hydrodynamic lubrication. If the surfaces are separated by a thick fluid film the influence from surface asperities is small and the surfaces can be treated as smooth. If the rate of change in film thickness with respect to the spatial directions is significantly large and if the flow velocity or Reynolds number is large, the ordinary fluid mechanical approach treating viscous flow with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has to be used. CFD is used to investigate influence from the use of an artificial microscopic surface pattern on one of the two interacting surfaces. The influence from the pattern is isolated from any other pressure generating effects by keeping the interacting surfaces parallel. Results are shown for different shapes of the micro-pattern. If the Reynolds number decreases, the system enters a regime called Stokes flow where the inertia effects are neglected. The full CFD approach is compared with the Stokes for various physical and geometrical cases. If the change in film thickness is small in the spatial directions, the thin film approximation is applicable and the full momentum equations describing fluid flow together with the mass continuity equation can be reduced to the Reynolds equation. Depending on boundary conditions, low pressures can occur at location of expanding fluid gap leading to tensile stress applied to the lubricant. However, a real liquid lubricant can only resist small tensile stresses until it cavitates into a mixture of gas and liquid. This often happens close to atmospheric pressure due to contamination and dissolved air into the liquid and occurs at higher pressures than the actual vaporization. To avoid pressures reaching too low levels, a general cavitation algorithm applied to the Reynolds equation is presented that accommodates for an arbitrary density-pressure relation. It is now possible to model the compressibility of the lubricant in such a way that the density-pressure relation is realistic through out the contact. The algorithm preserves mass continuity which is of importance when inter-asperity cavitation of rough surfaces is considered. For small film thicknesses the surface roughness becomes important in the performance of the lubricated contact. Even the smoothest of real surfaces is rough at a microscopic level and will influence the contact condition. The Reynolds equation still applies since the heights of the surface asperities are small compared to the spatial elongation. Treatment of the roughness of a real surface in a deterministic fashion is however beyond the scope of today's computers. Therefore other approaches need to be employed in order to take the surface roughness into account. In this work a homogenization method is used where the governing equation of the flow condition is formulated with a two-scale expansion, the global geometry and the roughness. Solutions are achieved for the limit of the roughness wavelength approaching zero and the method renders a possibility to treat the two scales separately. A method to generate dimensionless flow factors compensating for the surface roughness is developed. The flow factors, once solved for a particular surface, can be used to compensate for the surface roughness in any smooth global problem for any film thickness. / <p>Godkänd; 2005; 20061213 (haneit)</p>

Rail and rail wheel flange wear on the rail track has been a problem of attention for the last 30 years. The problems arise in curves and depend on increased traffic volume, heavier axle load and also higher speed. Axle loads of 22,5-25 ton is common nowadays and the trend is towards heavier axle loads where the next step is 30-35 ton. Flange wear includes both wheel and rail flanges and is therefore a problem for the operating company as well as the infrastructure owner. The flange wear depend mainly on the number of passed axles, type of traffic, speed and curve radius but also the axle load contributes. Flange lubrication on high rail is a well known way to reduce wear since the middle of 70th and a number of techniques to lubricate the rail flange are developed as grease, aerosol of oil and dry stick with solid lubricants. The trackside lubricator can not apply the grease on the rail flange when the climate is during the winter. The infrastructure owner in Sweden was interested to evaluate the effectiveness of the track side lubricator. The investment in trackside lubricators over 20 years was about 75 Mkr (7,6 USD) and also an additional yearly costs to operate 3000 apparatuses. The work to evaluate effectiveness of the lubrication started 1997 there one of the important matter concern the possibility to use environmentally adapted lubricants without hazard the rail. This licentiate thesis concern effectiveness of trackside lubricators to reduce wear in sharp railroad curves. Also the environmentally aspects have been considered and therefore natural esters synthetic esters and additives suited for those kind of lubricants have been evaluated. The research proved that environmentally adapted lubricants could lubricate as good as earlier used greases. Some amount of metal removal is probably healthy for this kind of application. Lubricants as synthetic esters can be designed get those qualities. It was also found significant difference between the seasons concerning flange wear. This difference depends on the problem to apply grease on the rail flange during the winter.

The term "sliding bearing" refers to types of bearing where two conformal surfaces (usually the stationary bearing and a moving shaft) slide relative to one another with load distributed directly across the interface. A suitable lubricant may be employed to reduce the friction between these two surfaces. In "fluid film" bearings, this lubricant builds up a layer of sufficient thickness such that the two surfaces are completely separated. Examples include journal and thrust bearings and shaft bushings. Unlike ball or roller bearings which have a limited lifespan, sliding bearings have, at least in theory, an indefinite operational lifespan. As long as an oil film of sufficient thickness is maintained and contamination is avoided, the bearing may continue to do its job indefinitely. However, more and more onerous demands are being placed on such bearings and their associated methods of lubrication in order to maximise performance in terms of efficiency and load carrying capacity, for example in hydroelectricity generators and turbines. Given the sensitivity of operating any form of mechanical equipment in the vicinity of watercourses, often the source of drinking water for major population centres, the hydropower industry has a duty of responsibility in ensuring that as much as possible is done to minimise the risk of contamination of the water or damage to flora and fauna. Two aims - increased output, decreased environmental impact - are currently the major driving forces behind Research and Development in the hydroelectric power generation industry. Looking at these from a tribological (friction and lubrication) point of view, three areas of particular interest can be identified. These are: 1) How can the load carrying capacity of thrust bearings be increased whilst at the same time improving performance within existing dimensional constraints? 2) What is the influence on bearings of transient events (rapid changes in speed or loading) and what impact do they have on the machinery components? 3) How does the use of Environmentally Adapted Lubricants (as opposed to mineral oils) influence friction and wear etc, specifically with reference to shaft bushings, and what is the impact of fluid ageing (oxidation) on their performance? Each of these three points has been studied in the course of the work carried out for this thesis. / Godkänd; 2005; 20061214 (haneit)

This licentiate thesis deals with the influence of transient loading, at high pressures, on the pressure-dilatation relation and frictional properties of lubricants. A Split-Hopkinson pressure bar and a Ball and Bar apparatus have been used for the experiments. Both methods share the same type of evaluation approach: evaluation by analysis of wave propagation in structures. The advantage with this method is that results are presented as function of time, i.e. every experiment yields a history of the studied event, not just a single value. Different theoretical evaluation methods have been used and refinements have been made by introducing compensation terms in order to enhance accuracy. Several lubricants have been studied and an empirical second-degree polynomial has been suggested, for a naphthenic mineral oil and a synthetic 5P4E oil, describing the pressure-dilatation relation over a wide pressure range. It is found that 5P4E exhibits lower compressibility, i.e. higher stiffness than the naphthenic oil. Curves representing friction coefficient as function of time for different lubricants at different pressures are included. It is evident that the Naphthenic- and Paraffinic mineral oils have the highest friction coefficient followed by Polyglycol, Polyalphaolefin and Rape seed oil. The observed distinctions agree well with the expected outcome on basis of molecular structure and pressure variation and correlates well with other density and friction investigations. A general trend of decreasing friction coefficient with increasing pressure is discovered. / Godkänd; 2000; 20070318 (ysko)

Long and frequent train delays, striking many periodically make headlines. The question is raised: what might be done about it? The on-going deregulation of the Swedish railway, with more actors entering the market, contributes to the question's topicality. In this thesis, problems and symptoms concerning punctuality are described and analysed. Herein, punctuality is defined as the extent to which an event takes place when agreed, for example the agreement between passengers and the company selling the ticket, considering the event that the train arrives at a certain time. The terminology in use on punctuality-related entities is floating. Causes for unpunctuality are related to the infrastructure, locomotives, wagons and personnel. Herein, primarily failures related to infrastructure are discussed. Maintenance, i.e. correcting and preventing failures, together with the track, rolling stock, weather, driver, other personnel and the timetable determine how good the punctuality will be. To the ore and steel transports studied it is more important to limit the lengths of the transport times, rather than having high punctuality, i.e. adherence to timetable. Generally, for freight transports it is difficult to give an estimation of the cost for unpunctuality. To find the root cause of a delay is vital, as is identification of symptoms and triggering events, in order to be able to carry out appropriate actions. Often the information needed to do so is lacking in the Ofelia database for infrastructure failures. Comparisons between regions or over time are complexified by the varying policies on how failure coding is to be performed. To improve punctuality by learning from others is made more difficult by e.g. different countries employing different ways of denoting punctuality. In the transport chain of post in Norway, terms related to punctuality varied even more among stakeholders. They considered being informed on estimated time of arrival as important, but getting this information was, despite this, not among the quantified goals. Few requirements were quantified, despite this often being simple to do. The consequences of failure are important to consider, not only e.g. the number of failures. Studying the variation in transport time on different line sections might help in identifying problems, because coding of delays shorter than five minutes is not carried out in the Swedish railway. Such causes of delay include low contact wire voltage, minor problems with locomotives and slippery rails due to leaves on the track. Disadvantageously, this variation is masked in the case of heavy trains or steep and curvy lines. In a studied maintenance organisation, the indicators of maintenance measured the result of the entire maintenance process. In order to manage each sub process better, it is more advantageous to measure the performance of them individually. Considering the specific sub process that decides which maintenance actions are to be carried out, it only uses expenses for the action itself when deciding, not resulting future costs and punctuality. The indicators focus on measuring past performance, not on facilitating planning for the future. A design of information systems facilitating information usage from different functions of the organisation would facilitate informed decisions. Information concerning technology, traffic and economy need to be integrated. / Godkänd; 2005; 20061218 (haneit)

No description available.

The work presented in this thesis concerns computer simulations of the lubrication process. The main subject of interest is elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) and, to some extent, hydrodynamic lubrication (HD). The thesis comprises an introductory section and three papers; referred to as A, B and C. Simulation of EHL is an inter-disciplinary task, incorporating the fields of fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, thermodynamics and rheology. In almost all numerical simulations of lubrication performed today, the hydrodynamics are modelled using the Reynolds equation. This equation is derived from the equations of momentum and continuity and using the thin film approximation. However, the assumptions made when deriving this equation limits the size of the computational/spatial domain and the equation cannot predict pressure variations across the lubricating oil film. The subject of papers A and B are numerical simulations using the full equations of momentum and continuity, (Paper B), and the equation of energy (Paper A). The main aim of the work was to investigate the possibilities of carrying out numerical simulations based on the above equations. The rheology was assumed to be Newtonian; the equations are then commonly referred to as the Navier-Stokes equations (N-S). The second aim of the work was to investigate the possibilities of using a commercial software, CFX 4.3 [1], to carry out the numerical simulations. The results in Paper A show that it is possible to simulate thermal EHL line contacts up to pressures of approximately 1 GPa. The limitations of the approach are due to a singularity that can occur in the equation of momentum when a critical shear stress is reached. With a more complete rheological model (non-Newtonian rheology) it should be possible to perform simulations at even higher contact pressures. Paper B presents the results of isothermal simulations comparing the N-S and Reynolds equation approaches. The result show that there may be some discrepancies between the two approaches; although only small discrepancies have been observed in the smooth line contact simulations made. The characteristics of the EHL-contact with a wide range of scales and large gradients in pressure, viscosity and temperature make developing accurate numerical simulations to a difficult task. The computational cost is high due to the small under-relaxations factors that must be used in order to obtain converged numerical solutions. The work to date has shown that is possible to use the extended approach in conjunction with a commercial software, CFX 4.3 [1]. This approach makes it possible to extend the computational domain in future in EHL-simulations, where the Reynolds approach is not valid. Paper C presents the results of simulations of a lubricated pivoted thrust bearing. The objective of this study was to verify a thermo-hydrodynamic (THD) model for this type of bearing. The model developed handles three-dimensional temperature distribution in the oil film and pad, as well as two-dimensional temperature variation in the runner. The viscosity and density are treated as functions of both temperature and pressure. Experiments have been performed in a test rig consisting of two identical equalising pivoted pad thrust bearings. Experimentally measured power loss, runner temperature and pressure profiles as a function of load and rotational speed were compared with the theoretical investigations. The results showed fairly good agreement when the oil inlet temperature and heat transfer coefficients were modified in order to obtain the same runner temperature in both theory and experiment. / Godkänd; 2001; 20070314 (ysko)

No description available.

Since the usage of pressurized systems, there has been a challenge to prevent and control leakage of different fluids. When a metal-to-metal face seal is designed, different aspects are to be considered. Its ring shaped sealing surface is designed to prevent leakage and also to maintain pressure. In this thesis, the main objective is to study how out-of-flatness affects the leakage. This property of sealing interface can be described by different wave parameters and in this case, by means of modelling and numerical simulations. The best approach is the usage of Heterogeneous Multiscale Method (HMM). The data obtained by means of the two-scale stochastic model showed that the pressure amplitude is the most important parameter of the out-of-flatness. In same level of importance, comes the mean pressure even though it is not considered an out-of-flatness parameter. From the data obtained, a simple mathematical expression for leak rate was constructed that shows the effect of out-of-flatness.