EFFECT OF ECCENTRICITY RATIO AND ROTATIONAL SPEED ON THE PRESSURE VARIATION OF FLUID IN HYDRODYNAMIC JOURNAL BEARING
Authors: *Erhunmwun I.D, Akpobi J.A
DOI Info: N/A
ABSTRACT
In this work, an analysis has been carried to determine the effect of eccentricity ratio and rotational speed on the pressure variation of fluid (lubricant) in a hydrodynamic journal bearing. The classical Reynolds equation was used to represent the pressure behaviour in a journal bearing assumed to be infinitely short. This study was carried out using the finite element method (FEM). The domain of the bearing was discretized and pressure analysis was carried out on each of these finite elements. The overall results from these finite elements were finally assembled to represent the pressure distribution in the entire domain of the bearing. The result obtained shows that as the eccentricity ratio increases, the pressure in the bearing also increases. This was shown for different values of eccentricity between 0.1 and 0.8. The same relationship was obtained for the angular speed. It was shown that the pressure was directly proportional to the rotational speed and this was shown for different rotational speed between 1000 rad/s and 10000 rad/s. The result obtained from this study shows to have a strong positive correlation with existing result in literature.
Affiliations: Department of Production Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
Keywords: Eccentricity Ratio, Rotational Speed, Journal Bearing, Reynolds Equation, Weak Formulation
Published date: 2016/12/30
