CFD ANALYSIS OF THERMOHYDRODYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF NANOLUBRICATED JOURNAL BEARINGS CONSIDERING CAVITATION EFFECT

Abstract

The present work displays an extensive numerical analysis for the thermo-hydrodynamic (THD) behavior in finite length journal bearings lubricated with different types of nano-lubricants considering cavitation effect. The effects of nanoparticle concentrations, cavitation and temperature rise on the performance parameters of such bearings have been explored. The bearing is simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) approach. The effect of using different types of nano-lubricants with different volume fractions of TiO2 and Al2O3 nanoparticles dispersed in Veedol Avalon ISO Viscosity grade 46 oil has been demonstrated. Modified Krieger-Dougherty equation has been implemented with the thermal viscosity model to to evaluate the oil effective viscosity. The obtained results show that concerning the TiO2 nanoparticles results in a higher oil film pressure and load carrying capacity in comparison with Al2O3. The bearing equilibrium position was obtained by using Response Surface analysis (RSA) with optimal space-filling design technique. The numerical model was validated by comparing the results obtained in the present work with that obtained by Feron et al. The results were found to be in a good confirmation. The attained results show that the maximum pressure grows by 21% when the bearing is lubricated with nano-lubricant.