Design and movement trail analysis of a life testing machine for self-lubricating rod end spherical plain bearing of a helicopter

Abstract

In this paper, a new type of mechanism in a life testing machine for self-lubricating rod end spherical plain bearing of a helicopter is proposed based on the main rotor structure and motion process of a single rotor helicopter with hinged blades. The forward displacement of the mechanism is analyzed by using coordinate transformation and a function relationship for rotation variation between inner and outer ring of testing bearing rotating around the radial and axial is gained; a novel life testing machine is accomplished based on the mechanism, and a 3 D model is built and the function curves are obtained with MATLAB. The function relationship is proved to be validity by contrasting with the motion simulation results. This life testing machine can simulate pitching and flapping motions of self-lubricating rod end spherical plain bearing of helicopter on the ground, and the research provides a theory basis for accurately applying the load on the testing bearing and boundary conditions for optimizing the mechanism structure.

Keywords

• self-lubricating rod end spherical plain bearing
• life testing machine
• pitch link
• movement trail analysis
• motion simulation