HIGH SPEED JOURNAL BEARINGS LUBRICATED WITH ELECTRO-RHEOLOGICAL FLUIDS: AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

Abstract

It is well known that the imposition of an electric field on an Electro-Rheological (ER) fluid alters the viscosity and as a consequence the f flow properties of the f fluid. If such a fluid is used to lubricate a journal bearing system, it is expected that the imposition of an electric field between the rotor and the stator will cause the alteration of the dynamic properties of the journal bearing. For the present, it has been proved that this is valid only for low speeds and high radial clearances of Couette type viscometers. In this paper an experiment in a high speeds (16000 to 65000 s −1) journal bearing with small radial clearance is presented. The experiment performed has showed the phenomenon and has proved that the ER FLUID at high shear rates under constant temperature, follows the Bingham model in realistic bearings. Properties such as wall shear stress, dynamic yield stress relative viscosity are experimentally determined as functions of the electric field, for different particle concentrations and the shear strain rate under constant or free to vary temperature (due to operating conditions, angular velocity, friction). Concluding the ER fluids can be used to create “smart” journal bearings. Vibration controllers can be constructed to control the stability of the ER fluid lubricated bearings.