Friction and wear analysis of the external return spherical bearing pair of axial piston pump/motor

By discretizing the contact area between the external retainer plate and the external spherical hinge, a mathematical model for the force relation of an arbitrary contact point in the external return spherical bearing pair was established and a mathematical expression for the friction power of the external return spherical bearing pair was deduced. The influences of the slant inclination of the external swash plate, pump shaft rotating speed, eccentricity, spring force and number of discrete contact points on the friction power were also analysed. The results show that the power fluctuation amplitude of the discrete contact point in the external return spherical bearing pair increases with increasing slant inclination of the external swash plate, pump shaft rotating speed and spring force; the total friction power was found to increase linearly. However, the power fluctuation amplitude of the discrete contact point in the external return spherical bearing pair was found to decrease with increasing eccentricity, with the total friction power decreasing nonlinearly until reaching a certain value. The distribution shape of the friction power of the discrete contact point is only affected by eccentricity. If the eccentricity is large, the friction power of the discrete point presents a double-peak distribution, whereas if it is small, a multiple-peak distribution is observed.