1

Friction in joints
Friction can be evaluated using friction coefficient
1. Cylinder Piston, sliding joint
Assume boundary lubrication in this pair and friction coefficient f = 0,15

=  , 
F friction force
N reaction force
f friction coefficient
Fig. 1

This friction coefficient can be used directly in Inventor Dynamic simulation environment to
describe friction behavior in a sliding joint.
2. All rotating joints
These joints can function normally only under hydrodynamic friction conditions. This means that
rotating shaft and its bearing are separated with a thin oil film of varying thickness and no metal to
metal contact occurs in the joint. All the shaft load is carried by a thin oil film called the oil wedge
(see Fig.2). Oil wedge is created as oil is being pulled between the shaft and the bearing by a
rotating shaft surface. The main reason of this pulling effect is that every liquid has viscosity and so
inner friction forces force the fluid (oil) layers to follow rotating shaft surface.
The effect occurs at no cost and substantial loads can be carried.

Fig. 2 Hydrodynamic bearing

f friction coefficient
- oil dynamic viscosity
N shaft RPM
P carried load

Fig. 3 Friction coefficient of a rotating joint (Stribeck curve)

As can be seen in Figure 3 the friction coefficient for hydrodynamic lubrication is relatively small
(approx. 50 times smaller than for boundary lubrication) and increases approximately linearly with
rotational speed.
We will use simplified theory formulas to evaluate friction torque in rotating joints:
Friction force in a joint:


,   (1)


where l bearing length, d shaft diameter, - oil

dynamic viscosity, shaft angular velocity, joint
relative gap (diametric gap 2s / shaft diameter d).

Then friction torque will be as follows:

=

Fig. 4 Joint radial gap s

,   (2)
2

Prepare the following Excel sheet

1. Oil viscosity
Oil viscosity
kinematic visc Density
2

, mm /s (cSt) , kg/m
32

Dynamic visc
3

, kg /s*m
869

0,027808

Dynamic viscosity  =   = 32 10 869 0,027808

#$
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2. Diametric gap
Choose something between 0,03 to 0,1 mm (for large diameters)
Rotating joint diametral gap
Crank journal
Conrod pin
Piston pin

s, mm
0,05
0,05
0,025

3. coefficient (see formula 1)

Use your diameters and contact length

Crank journal
Conrod pin
Piston pin

diameter d, mm contact length, l,mm coefficient =s/d

**l*d/
65
46
0,000769231
65
46
0,000769231
28
37
0,000892857

0,339573795
0,339573795
0,10136719

4. Friction torque and slope in crankshaft journals, connecting rod pin and piston pin
Friction torque M, N*mm
n ,rpm
, rad/s
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000

, deg/s
0,0
52,4
104,7
157,1
209,4
261,8
314,2
366,5
418,9

0,0
3000,2
6000,4
9000,7
12000,9
15001,1
18001,3
21001,5
24001,8

2x Crank journals, Nmm Conrod pin, Nmm

Piston pin, Nmm
0,0
0,0
0,0
1155,7
577,9
74,3
2311,4
1155,7
148,6
3467,1
1733,6
222,9
4622,8
2311,4
297,2
5778,5
2889,3
371,5
6934,2
3467,1
445,8
8089,9
4045,0
520,1
9245,6
4622,8
594,4
Slope, (N*mm) / (deg/s) Slope
Slope
0,385205876
0,192602938
0,024766853

Calculate friction torques using formulae (2) for different RPM.

There are two crankshaft journals and therefore double friction torque.
As the function is linear you can use 2 RPM values in table. For example 0 and 500.

Calculate friction torque slope or acquire it from graphs as shown in Figure 5. We will use
the slopes to define friction behavior in a rotating joins of Inventor Dynamic Simulation.
We will use them to define parameter called Damping.

Fig. 5 Friction torque slopes

So the friction torque of a rotating joint can be defined in Dynamic simulation as follows