Operating Characteristics of Journal Bearings in Turbulent Inertial Flow

Abstract

A numerical method for solving the lubrication equations including an iterative procedure to account for the inertial effects is outlined, together with appropriate boundary conditions for film rupture. Data concerning the operating characteristics of full journal bearings are provided, function of length/diameter ratio, clearance ratio, Reynolds number, and eccentricity ratio. As compared to other existing numerical procedures, the present method has the main advantage that it can be easily implemented to any existing program for calculating the operating characteristics of a bearing in laminar and turbulent flow. Moreover, it was found that the first iteration gives sufficiently accurate results, so that convergence problems related to the iteration procedure (which may appear when the product between the Reynolds number and the clearance ratio is very large) does not alter its practical utility.