Analysis of couple-stresses and piezo-viscous effects in a layered connecting-rod bearing

Abstract

In this work, the combined effects of couple-stresses and piezo-viscosity on the dynamic behavior of a compression ignition engine big-end connecting-rod bearing with elastic layer are investigated using the V. K. Stokes micro-continuum theory. It is assumed that the journal (crankpin) is rigid and the big-end bearing consists of a thin compressible elastic liner fixed in an infinitely stiff housing. The governing Reynolds' equation and the viscous dissipation term appearing on the RHS of energy equation are modified using the V. K. Stokes micro-continuum theory. The non-Newtonian effect is introduced by a new material constant η, which is responsible for couple-stress property, and the piezo-viscosity effect by the pressure–viscosity coefficient α appearing in the well-known Barus' law. In the proposed model, the nonlinear transient modified Reynolds equation is discretized by the finite difference method, and the resulting system of algebraic equations is solved by means of the subrelaxed successive substitutions method to obtain the fluid-film pressure field as well as the film thickness distribution. The crankpin center trajectories for a given load diagram are determined iteratively by solving the nonlinear equilibrium equations of the journal bearing system with the improved and damped Newton–Raphson method for each time step or crankshaft rotation angle. According to the obtained results, the effects of couple-stresses and piezo-viscosity on the nonlinear dynamic behavior of dynamically loaded bearings with either stiff or compliant liners are significant and cannot be overlooked.