Modeling a Slider-Crank Mechanism With Joint Wear

The paper presents a study on the prediction of wear for systems in which progressive wear affects the operating conditions responsible for the wear. A simple slider-crank mechanism with wear occurring at one of the joints is used to facilitate the study. For the mentioned mechanism, the joint reaction force responsible for the wear is, itself, affected by the progression of wear. It is postulated that the system dynamics and the wear are coupled and evolved simultaneously.

The study involves integrating a dynamic model of the slider-crank mechanism (with an imperfect joint) into a wear prediction procedure. The prediction procedure builds upon a widely used iterative wear scheme. The accuracy of the predictions is validated using results from an actual slider-crank mechanism.