Analysis of Three-Lobe Bearings Having Non-Newtonian Lubricants by a Finite Element Method

Abstract

Additives are extensively used in the commercial lubricants to improve their specific qualities. These lubricants are therefore non-Newtonian and their nonlinear relations between shear stress and shear strain rate are generally represented by cubic shear stress laws. The Navier-Stokes equations and the continuity equation in clindrical coordinates, representing the flow-field in the clearance space of each lobe of the three-lobe hydrodynamic journal bearings having Newtonian fluids, are solved by the finie element method using Galerkin’s technique. The solution for non-Newtonian lubricants is obtained by an iteration technique modifying the viscosity term in each iteration. The static performance characteristics have been obtained for both Newtonian and the non-Newtonian lubricants. The load capacity and friction of the bearing decrease with increase in the nonlinearity of the lubricant whereas the end flow is relatively unaffected.