A SIMPLIFIED SOLUTION OF STEADY-STATE REYNOLDS EQUATION FOR WORN JOURNAL BEARINGS

Maria Brandusa ILIE

ilie_maria_brandusa@yahoo.com

Traian CICONE

cicone@omtr.pub.ro

"Politehnica" University of Bucharest, ROMANIA

Abstract. Journal bearings operating over a great number of years and submitted to frequent starts and stops can be affected by the cumulative effect of wear. In some previous studies it was shown that, in some cases, wear has no significant negative effects or, apparently surprisingly, can be quite beneficial. This was shown based on complex TEHD models with numerical solutions. However, using such complex models that require high computational resources and long CPU time it is very difficult to perform parametric analyses. The purpose of the present work is to develop a simplified solution for Reynolds equation for full film journal bearings affected by wear. The model is applied to isothermal, steady-state, 360° journal, but it can be easily adapted to partial journal bearings. The model allows for quick results with acceptable accuracy. The results are obtained numerically, based on simple integration of a second order differential equation. Comparisons with similar results obtained by Fillon and co-workers [1] are very encouraging, showing very small differences with an important gain in CPU time.
 

Keywords: journal bearing, wear, Reynolds equation, hydrodynamic lubrication, simplified model

References

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