A Laser Surface Textured Journal Bearing

Abstract

The potential use of laser surface texturing (LST) in hydrodynamic journal bearings is examined theoretically. The regular surface texture has the form of micro-dimples with preselected diameter, depth, and area density. It can be applied to only a certain portion of the bearing perimeter (partial LST) or the full bearing perimeter (full LST). The effect of such a texture on load capacity and on the attitude angle of the journal bearing is investigated in the present work. The optimum parameters of the dimples and favorable LST mode for maximum load capacity have been found.