Evaluation of New Materials for Rotor Hub Journal Bearings

摘要

The nonlubricated bearing designs currently used in a number of helicopter rotor systems are based on a fabric-reinforced Teflon technology that is more than 10 years old. This test program was designed to evaluate some of the promising new self-lubricating materials and compare them to the present bearing design. These tests evaluated four new bearing materials plus two standard fabric-reinforced Teflon bearings. Tests were conducted at normal flight loads and motions initially. The bearing loads were then increased in order to accelerate material deterioration and to reduce the required test time. (Author)