Effects of Typical Physical Properties on Tribological Behaviors of Three Kinds of Polymer Materials for Water-Lubricated Bearings

The stretching, shearing, deformation, peeling, and temperature rise phenomena at the micro–nano contact interface have a great influence on its tribological properties and significantly affect the service life of key moving parts made of polymers. The physical properties of the three typical polymer materials used for ship bearing polymer materials (ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, synthetic rubber, and polypropylene) were examined to investigate their effects on the wear behaviors. The results showed that synthetic rubber has good wear resistance because of its excellent shear strength, tensile strength, and high initial thermoplastic deformation temperature. Low initial thermoplastic deformation temperature resulted in great wear to the polypropylene material under dry friction, whereas its good wettability resulted in good wear resistance under water-lubricated condition. The ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene had the poorest wear resistance under water-lubricated condition because it had the poorest shear strength and tensile strength. The knowledge gained herein provides a better understanding of the relationships between the physical behaviors of polymer materials and their friction and wear mechanisms, along with guidance for selecting and designing polymer friction pairs for ship bearings.