Parametric optimisation on the performance of the journal bearing using Taguchi approach

Abstract

Hydrodynamic journal bearings are widely used to support high-speed rotating equipment due to their excellent strength and load-bearing capacity. Therefore, bearings are essential mechanical elements to improve the quality of rotating equipment. Bearing performance depends on various factors but pressure and frictional torque plays a vital role in load carrying capacity of bearing. In this present work, both experimental and analytical approach of a typical journal bearing has been carried out to determine the optimal performance of the bearing. Taguchi-based optimisation method has been proposed for journal bearing. Taguchi L27 orthogonal array has been planned to study peak pressure and frictional torque with three input parameters speed, load and viscosity index. The result shows that loading criterion influences much on performance of bearing. The experimental data is obtained from a journal bearing test rig and the analytical data are generated by MINITAB 18. From the experiment, it can be confirmed that speed – 2000 rpm, load – 600 N and viscosity index – 150 are the ideal process parameters for lower peak pressure and less frictional torque.