THERMOELASTOHYDRODYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF NON-NEWTONIAN DYNAMICALLY LOADED JOURNAL BEARINGS

Aurelian FATU

afatu@iutang.univ-poitiers.fr

 Mohamed HAJJAM

hajjam@iutang.univ-poitiers.fr

 Dominique BONNEAU

dbonneau@iutang.univ-poitiers.fr

 University of Poitiers, France

Abstract. An efficient method for thermoelastohydrodynamic (TEHD) lubrication journal bearings analysis is presented. Lubrication film temperature is treated as a time-dependent, two-dimensional variable, which is averaged over the film thickness. The oil non-Newtonian behaviour is included. This effect is introduced by modifying the viscosity in each point of a 3D numerical film mesh and for each iteration. Using a convenient iterative solution procedure, the converged solutions for lubricant flow and elastic deformation fields are obtained. The algorithm efficiency for studying complex bearing configuration is applied to a connecting rod bearing TEHD lubrication problem. It was proved that the non-Newtonian shear-thinning effect cannot be neglected in an accurate lubrication analysis.

Keywords: thermoelastohydrodynamic lubrication, non-Newtonian oil, connecting rod bearing, finite element method