A Theoretical Analysis Considering Cavitation Occurrence in Oil-Lubricated Spiral-Grooved Journal Bearings With Experimental Verification

Abstract

Performances of an oil-lubricated spiral-grooved journal bearing are investigated in this paper with special attention paid to cavitation occurrence. The “equivalent flow model,” which is a theoretical scheme for taking the cavitation occurrence into hydrodynamic lubrication theory, is applied to the analyses by a finite difference treatment of the Reynolds equation that deals with the geometry of a finite number of grooves. The calculated results are compared with experimental results under eccentric states, and verified in terms of cavitation map and pressure distribution. The cavitated area ratio, load capacity and bearing stiffness are also theoretically calculated. The difference between the theoretical results with and without consideration of the cavitation occurrence is considerable, and thus the influence of cavitation occurrence should not be ignored in theoretical studies on bearing characteristics.