Vibration Characteristics of Biomimetic Textured Rolling Bearings Inspired by Monstera deliciosa Under Starved Lubrication

Biomimetic surface texturing provides a promising strategy for regulating the vibration behavior of rolling bearings under starved lubrication. In this study, vein-like, elliptical, semi-elliptical, and composite textures inspired by Monstera deliciosa leaves were fabricated on the shaft-washer raceways of thrust cylindrical roller bearings at depths of 4 μm, 8 μm, and 12 μm. Tangential and normal vibration signals were analyzed using time-domain parameters, frequency spectra, power spectral density, and time–frequency maps. The results showed that both texture morphology and depth strongly affected vibration stability. Most textured bearings exhibited lower vibration responses than the smooth bearing after prolonged operation. Among the tested depths, 8 μm produced the most stable response, characterized by lower peak values, smoother root mean square curves, reduced power spectral density levels, and more uniform time–frequency energy distributions. The 8 μm semi-elliptical texture exhibited the best overall performance by suppressing transient impacts and high-frequency energy concentration. These findings indicate that vibration regulation in textured rolling bearings depends primarily on the synergistic matching between texture morphology and depth rather than texture complexity alone.