A study of EHD lubrication in a journal bearing with Piezoviscous lubricants

Abstract

The deformation of a bearing, which can be of the order of the fluid film thickness when the bearing operates at large eccentricities, may affect the performance appreciably, and all the more so if the viscosity of the lubricant changes with pressure. In this paper, matched solutions for pressure distribution and the bearing displacement field, taking into account the combined effects of bearing liner deformation as well as change in viscosity of the lubricant, are obtained by solving the respective governing equations using a suitable iteration scheme for eccentricity ratios up to unity. The performance characteristics of the journal bearing and their variations with bearing flexibility, are studied with reference to eccentricity ratio and a deformation coefficient which is a measure of the flexibility of bearing shell.