Abstract
Most of the analysis that has been done on the Reynolds’ equation which forms the basis for journal bearing performance utilized the simplified assumption due to mathematical complexity but this study aims at analyzing the Reynolds’ equation using the full two dimensional form to find out the performance of the journal bearing without the assumption that the pressure gradient in one axis is negligible. This become necessary because machineries in industries rotate at a very high speed, carrying heavy load on the shaft so the shaft, no matter how perfectly aligned they are at assembly, become misaligned when subjected to these heavy loads and the hydrodynamic pressure is skewed towards the position of minimum film thickness. The pressure is distributed in two dimensions. Previous literature often made use of the long bearing approximation with pressure gradient along the axial direction taken as zero. To accurately predict the performance of journal bearings, the axial direction was taken into consideration in this study. Numerical methods were employed to analyze the two dimensional Reynolds’ equation without vertical flow. Finite Element Method (FEM) and the Finite Difference Method (FDM) were used to find the nodal pressure and the nodal load capacity applying the half Sommerfeld’s boundary condition. The maximum pressure obtained for the bearing considered was 0.3891MPa and the maximum load the bearing can support is 8.1507×10<sup>3</sup> N/m.
Highlights
Journal bearings are designed based on the given parameters
As the oil moves from the inlet to the outlet of the bearing, the pressure drops with a maximum pressure value of pmax = 0.3891MPa which fall within the same range produced by the fluent 6.3 software used by Mukesh et al (2012)
The pressure drop is as a result of reduction in the hydrodynamic oil film thickness as shown in Fig. 4 and it is observed that the profile flatten as we move from inlet to the outlet
Summary
Journal bearings are designed based on the given parameters. This implies that bearings are not generally designed to fit into all operating conditions but for specified operating conditions such as speed and load, geometrical requirements (length, diameter) and based on the viscosity of the lubricant.All these factors have effect on the performance of the bearings. Journal bearings are designed based on the given parameters. This implies that bearings are not generally designed to fit into all operating conditions but for specified operating conditions such as speed and load, geometrical requirements (length, diameter) and based on the viscosity of the lubricant. All these factors have effect on the performance of the bearings. Nuruzzaman et al (2010) carried out a study on pressure distribution and load capacity of a journal bearing using Finite Element Method and Analytical method and concluded that the finite element results showed better agreement to published results than analytical results.
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