Elastohydrodynamic lubrication study of different slider bearings in laminar and turbulent regimes

Abstract

The piezoviscous property of lubricants enhances bearing deformation; this is more marked at high speeds when the lubricant flow is turbulent. In this paper, in which the mutual dependence of lubricant viscosity, hydrodynamic pressure in the fluid film and elasticity of the bearing is considered, the steady state solutions of the corresponding governing equations of the flow field and of the bearing deformations are determined in laminar and turbulent flow conditions using a nested iteration scheme. The bearing deformation is thus accounted for in computing the performance characteristics of taper-land and Rayleigh step slider bearings. The effects of various geometrical parameters (the slope of the fluid film and the taper-land ratio), the pressure-viscosity coefficient α (α = 0, 0.25 and 0.50) and the linearized turbulence coefficients (which take values of 0, 2500 and 5000) that are based on the theory of Ng and Pan on the performance characteristics of the slider bearings are studied with reference to the non-dimensional deformation coefficient.