EQUILIBRIUM OF A JOURNAL BEARING: A SIMPLIFIED CFD-ANALYTICAL COUPLED APPROACH
Franco Concli
Abstract
Journal bearings are historically designed using the half-Sommerfeld theory. The semi-analytical solution of the continuity and momentum conservation equations is used as the starting point. Possible negative values of the pressure were substituted with the ambient pressure. This hypothesis provides acceptable results, even if for a better understanding of the phenomena cavitation effects should be considered and modelled numerically. The authors have already proved the capability to achieve very accurate results with the Kunz cavitation model. The numerical results were validated in terms of pressure distribution with experimental data coming from different setups. In this paper, a simplified CFD-analytical coupled approach for the calculation of the equilibrium position and its trajectory of the journal is shown.