Effects of fluid inertia and bearing flexibility on the performance of finite length journal bearing

Abstract

The paper describes the theoretical study concerning the effect of lubricant inertia forces and deformability of the bearing elastic layer on the performance of a plane journal bearing. The problem is investigated for a Newtonian lubricant under isothermal and isoviscous conditions. The analysis considers the generalized Reynolds equation governing the flow of lubricant in the clearance space and the linear elasticity equation governing the displacement field in the bearing shell. An iterative numerical procedure with successive over relaxation is used to pressure distribution within the lubricated conjunction. Bearing performance characteristics have been presented for typically selected values of generalized Reynolds number Re* and elasticity parameters of the elastic liner. It has been observed that the combined effect of fluid inertia forces and bearing flexibility affects the performance characteristics of dynamically loaded journal bearing.