A Brief Comparison of the Accuracy of Time-Dependent Integration Schemes for the Reynolds Equation

Abstract

Two dynamic methods are compared for integrating the Reynolds equation as applied to determining the axial dynamics of a spool bearing. It is shown that very sensitive phase shifts in the numerical schemes can badly falsify the dynamics and thus care is needed in interpreting results using classical methods. Second order temporal accuracy can alleviate these problems and one such scheme is presented with excellent phase properties that is just as computationally efficient per time step as any of the first order accurate schemes.