Analysis of a worn multirecess hydrostatic journal bearing system

Abstract

In recent times Hydrostatic journal bearings have received considerable amount of attention by the researchers on account of their excellent performance as compared to other class of bearings. The objective of the present paper is to presents an analysis of a four-pocket capillary-compensated worn hydrostatic journal bearing system. The FEM has been used to solve the Reynolds equation governing the flow of lubricant in the clearance space of a multirecess journal bearing system together with capillary restrictor flow equation as a constant. The bearing performance characteristics of a capillary compensated 4-pocket worn hydrostatic journal bearing have been presented for a wide range of values of external load and nondimensional wear depth parameters. The numerically simulated results of bearing characteristics parameters in terms of maximum fluid-film pressure, minimum fluid-film thickness, lubricant flow rate and fluid film reaction have been presented. The simulated results suggest that for an accurate prediction of bearing characteristics data it is essential to include the effect of wear in the analysis of the hydrostatic journal bearing system. Copyright © 2009 by ASME.