Calculation of Pressure, Shear, and Flow in Lubricating Films for High Speed Bearings

Abstract

Inertial effects in lubrication flows, can be attributed to the roles of transient acceleration and the convective momentum transport in the dynamic equilibrium condition. As they become important, only when the Reynolds number is very large, a self-consistent analysis must make allowance for the commensurate alterations in the turbulent momentum transport process. At the same time, the pressure boundary condition at entrance edges should be accordingly modified to account for convective momentum transport and the developing shear effects. The latter aspect can be suitably approximated by the conservation condition of total pressure transport. A perturbation method (for inertial effects), which is a direct extension of the (noninertial) linearized turbulent lubrication theory, has been formulated.