Load and loss for high-speed lubrication flows of pressurized gases between non-concentric cylinders

Abstract

We examine the high-speed flow of pressurized gases between non-concentric cylinders where the inner cylinder rotates at constant speed while the outer cylinder is stationary. The flow is taken to be steady, two-dimensional, compressible, laminar, single phase and governed by a Reynolds lubrication equation. Approximations for the lubricating force and friction loss are derived using a perturbation expansion for large speed numbers. The present theory is valid for general Navier–Stokes fluids at nearly all states corresponding to ideal, dense and supercritical gases. Results of interest include the observation that pressurization gives rise to large increases in the lubricating force and decreases in the fluid friction. The lubrication force is found to scale with the bulk modulus. Within the context of the Reynolds equation an exact relation between total heat transfer and power loss is developed.