Research on tribological performance of textured thrust bearing using gray relational degree and improved multi-objective water circulation algorithm

To enhance the loading capacity of the oil film, reduce the lubricating oil temperature, and minimize the deformation of the friction pairs, three types of concave textures were proposed. The tribological properties of the thrust bearing underwent multi-objective optimization analysis using the two different methods. By comparing the two methods, it was found that the improved algorithm (MOWCA) demonstrated better optimization performance. Under this algorithm, when the texture shape was triangular, the number of textures was 18n, the size was approximately 0.135 mm, and the spacing between textures was approximately 4.6 mm, the loading capacity of the oil film increased by approximately 26.8%, and the temperature decreased by approximately 0.46%.