Experiments on friction have been made by Coulomb, Samuel Vince, John Rennie, James Wood, D. Rankine and others. The most complete and elaborate experiments are those of Morin, published in his Notions fondamentales de mécanique, and republished in Britain in the works of Moseley and Gordon.
The experiments of Beauchamp Tower (“Report of Friction Experiments,” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., 1883) showed that when oil is supplied to a journal by means of an oil bath the coefficient of friction varies nearly inversely as the load on the bearing, thus making the product of the load on the bearing and the coefficient of friction a constant. Mr Tower’s experiments were carried out at nearly constant temperature. The more recent experiments of Lasche (Zeitsch, Verein Deutsche Ingen., 1902, 46, 1881) show that the product of the coefficient of friction, the load on the bearing, and the temperature is approximately constant. For further information on this point and on Osborne Reynolds’s theory of lubrication see [Bearings] and [Lubrication].
§ 99. Work of Friction. Moment of Friction.—The work performed in a unit of time in overcoming the friction of a pair of surfaces is the product of the friction by the velocity of sliding of the surfaces over each other, if that is the same throughout the whole extent of the rubbing surfaces. If that velocity is different for different portions of the rubbing surfaces, the velocity of each portion is to be multiplied by the friction of that portion, and the results summed or integrated.
When the relative motion of the rubbing surfaces is one of rotation, the work of friction in a unit of time, for a portion of the rubbing surfaces at a given distance from the axis of rotation, may be found by multiplying together the friction of that portion, its distance from the axis, and the angular velocity. The product of the force of friction by the distance at which it acts from the axis of rotation is called the moment of friction. The total moment of friction of a pair of rotating rubbing surfaces is the sum or integral of the moments of friction of their several portions.
To express this symbolically, let du represent the area of a portion of a pair of rubbing surfaces at a distance r from the axis of their relative rotation; p the intensity of the normal pressure at du per unit of area; and ƒ the coefficient of friction. Then the moment of friction of du is ƒpr du;
the total moment of friction is ƒ ∫ pr·du;
and the work performed in a unit cf time in overcoming friction, when the angular velocity is α, is αƒ ∫ pr·du.
(59)
It is evident that the moment of friction, and the work lost by being performed in overcoming friction, are less in a rotating piece as the bearings are of smaller radius. But a limit is put to the diminution of the radii of journals and pivots by the conditions of durability and of proper lubrication, and also by conditions of strength and stiffness.
§ 100. Total Pressure between Journal and Bearing.—A single piece rotating with a uniform velocity has four mutually balanced forces applied to it: (l) the effort exerted on it by the piece which drives it; (2) the resistance of the piece which follows it—which may be considered for the purposes of the present question as useful resistance; (3) its weight; and (4) the reaction of its own cylindrical bearings. There are given the following data:—