Hydrodynamic Lubrication of Textured Journal Bearing Considering Slippage: Two-dimensional CFD Analysis Using Multiphase Cavitation Model

Partial texturing of the surface of journal bearings have been proven very beneficial in terms of friction coefficient. In the present work, the load support of the hydrodynamic textured journal bearing combined with artificial slippage is fully characterized by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations based on the numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible flow. In order to model slippage, the enhanced user-defined-function (UDF) code is developed. Realistic boundary condition is employed by implementing the mixture multiphase model to model a cavitation in the bearing. The numerical analysis is performed under the condition of different groove depths, eccentricity ratios and slippage placements along the textured area of bearing. The simulation results including hydrodynamic pressure and load support are gained and compared for conventional smooth parameters. A reference to determine optimal groove depths as well as best artificial slippage placement of textured bearing under different conditions of loading are proposed. Based on the present results, favorable slippage-textured journal bearing design can be assessed.