Paper 6: Turbulent Lubrication Theory Applied to Fluid Film Bearing Design

Abstract

The fluid film bearing designer is encountering situations of turbulent lubrication with ever-increasing regularity. This paper is not concerned with the fundamentals of turbulent lubrication but more with an assessment of the methods available to the bearing designer for the examination of turbulent flow conditions and with the effect of turbulence. The two main ‘engineering’ approaches to turbulence are delineated and their quantitative predictions compared for the case of a finite width plane inclined slider thrust bearing hydrodynamically lubricated with an isoviscous incompressible fluid.