セラミックス軸受の設計上の留意点と破壊メカニズムに関する実験的研究

抄録

For a bearing of the vertical pump, a rubber bearing is generally adopted. However, if there was no lubricating water, the rubber bearing might be damaged in a short time. The installation of the lubricating water unit was necessary. In this case there were problems that operation and maintenance were complicated. From the viewpoint of improving reliability of the system, a ceramic bearing became positively adopted for a bearing of the vertical pump. As for the ceramic bearing, dry operation is possible for a short time. And the ceramic bearing can expect longer life by lubricating of the water, even including the sand. However, the problem also exists that the damage mode of the ceramic bearing is catastrophic in a short period which results in an unexpected shutdown of the pump.
Thus, its close evaluation in design is mandatory. Therefore, in the present paper, a point to keep in mind on designing the ceramic bearing is described based on analysis and experimental data and the mechanism to lead to break of the ceramic bearing, which was not made clear so far is discussed.