Nonlinear Thermal Diagnostics of Friction in Radial Polymer Sliding Bearings Subject to Shaft Mobility

The paper considers the nonlinear boundary-value inverse problem of power friction diagnostics in polymer sliding bearings by restoring the function of heat generation power according to temperature information. The problem relates to the class of ill-conditioned problems their peculiarity being the solution instability to slight errors in the initial temperature data. To solve the problem the authors use the iterative regularization method on the basis of gradient methods of functional minimization. The conjugate boundary-value problem is presented the use of which allows to obtain the formula for calculating the functional gradient. The step of descent is determined by solving the boundary-value problem for temperature increment.

Numerical experiments show the efficiency of the algorithm developed and stability of the solution to errors in temperature data. The suggested method of thermal diagnostics of friction can be used for improving the information value of operating tests of tribological conjunctions.