(Trans. Roy. Soc. Ed., vol. 28). It is shown that a machine may at any instant be represented by a frame of links the stresses in which are identical with the pressures at the joints of the mechanism. This self-strained frame is called the dynamic frame of the machine. The driving and resisting efforts are represented by elastic links in the dynamic frame, and when the frame with its elastic links is drawn the stresses in the several members of it may be determined by means of reciprocal figures. Incidentally the method gives the pressures at every joint of the mechanism.
§ 91. Efficiency.—The efficiency of a machine is the ratio of the useful work to the total work—that is, to the energy exerted—and is represented by
| Σ · Ruds′ | = | Σ · Ru ds′ | = | Σ · Ru ds′ | = | U | . |
| Σ · Rds′ | Σ · Ru ds′ + Σ · Rp ds′ | Σ · P ds | E |
Ru being taken to represent useful and Rp prejudicial resistances.
The more nearly the efficiency of a machine approaches to unity
the better is the machine.
§ 92. Power and Effect.—The power of a machine is the energy exerted, and the effect the useful work performed, in some interval of time of definite length, such as a second, an hour, or a day.
The unit of power, called conventionally a horse-power, is 550 foot-pounds per second, or 33,000 foot-pounds per minute, or 1,980,000 foot-pounds per hour.
§ 93. Modulus of a Machine.—In the investigation of the properties of a machine, the useful resistances to be overcome and the useful work to be performed are usually given. The prejudicial resistances arc generally functions of the useful resistances of the weights of the pieces of the mechanism, and of their form and arrangement; and, having been determined, they serve for the computation of the lost work, which, being added to the useful work, gives the expenditure of energy required. The result of this investigation, expressed in the form of an equation between this energy and the useful work, is called by Moseley the modulus of the machine. The general form of the modulus may be expressed thus—
where A denotes some quantity or set of quantities depending on the form, arrangement, weight and other properties of the mechanism. Moseley, however, has pointed out that in most cases this equation takes the much more simple form of
where A and B are constants, depending on the form, arrangement and weight of the mechanism. The efficiency corresponding to the last equation is
| U | = | 1 | . |
| E | 1 + A + B/U |
§ 94. Trains of Mechanism.—In applying the preceding principles
to a train of mechanism, it may either be treated as a whole, or
it may be considered in sections consisting of single pieces, or of
any convenient portion of the train—each section being treated as
a machine, driven by the effort applied to it and energy exerted
upon it through its line of connexion with the preceding section,
performing useful work by driving the following section, and losing
work by overcoming its own prejudicial resistances. It is evident
that the efficiency of the whole train is the product of the efficiencies of
its sections.
§ 95. Rotating Pieces: Couples of Forces.—It is often convenient to express the energy exerted upon and the work performed by a turning piece in a machine in terms of the moment of the couples of forces acting on it, and of the angular velocity. The ordinary British unit of moment is a foot-pound; but it is to be remembered that this is a foot-pound of a different sort from the unit of energy and work.
If a force be applied to a turning piece in a line not passing through its axis, the axis will press against its bearings with an equal and parallel force, and the equal and opposite reaction of the bearings will constitute, together with the first-mentioned force, a couple whose arm is the perpendicular distance from the axis to the line of action of the first force.
A couple is said to be right or left handed with reference to the observer, according to the direction in which it tends to turn the body, and is a driving couple or a resisting couple according as its tendency is with or against that of the actual rotation.
Let dt be an interval of time, α the angular velocity of the piece; then αdt is the angle through which it turns in the interval dt, and ds = vdt = rαdt is the distance through which the point of application of the force moves. Let P represent an effort, so that Pr is a driving couple, then
is the energy exerted by the couple M in the interval dt; and a similar equation gives the work performed in overcoming a resisting couple. When several couples act on one piece, the resultant of their moments is to be multiplied by the common angular velocity of the whole piece.
§ 96. Reduction of Forces to a given Point, and of Couples to the Axis of a given Piece.—In computations respecting machines it is often convenient to substitute for a force applied to a given point, or a couple applied to a given piece, the equivalent force or couple applied to some other point or piece; that is to say, the force or couple, which, if applied to the other point or piece, would exert equal energy or employ equal work. The principles of this reduction are that the ratio of the given to the equivalent force is the reciprocal of the ratio of the velocities of their points of application, and the ratio of the given to the equivalent couple is the reciprocal of the ratio of the angular velocities of the pieces to which they are applied.
These velocity ratios are known by the construction of the mechanism, and are independent of the absolute speed.
§ 97. Balanced Lateral Pressure of Guides and Bearings.—The most important part of the lateral pressure on a piece of mechanism is the reaction of its guides, if it is a sliding piece, or of the bearings of its axis, if it is a turning piece; and the balanced portion of this reaction is equal and opposite to the resultant of all the other forces applied to the piece, its own weight included. There may be or may not be an unbalanced component in this pressure, due to the deviated motion. Its laws will be considered in the sequel.
§ 98. Friction. Unguents.—The most important kind of resistance in machines is the friction or rubbing resistance of surfaces which slide over each other. The direction of the resistance of friction is opposite to that in which the sliding takes place. Its magnitude is the product of the normal pressure or force which presses the rubbing surfaces together in a direction perpendicular to themselves into a specific constant already mentioned in § 14, as the coefficient of friction, which depends on the nature and condition of the surfaces of the unguent, if any, with which they are covered. The total pressure exerted between the rubbing surfaces is the resultant of the normal pressure and of the friction, and its obliquity, or inclination to the common perpendicular of the surfaces, is the angle of repose formerly mentioned in § 14, whose tangent is the coefficient of friction. Thus, let N be the normal pressure, R the friction, T the total pressure, ƒ the coefficient of friction, and φ the angle of repose; then
| ƒ = tan φ R = ƒN = N tan φ = T sin φ |
(58) |
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 ƒprdu;
|
(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:—
