Cavitation in Short Bearings

Abstract

In this note we obtain the boundaries of the cavitation bubbles when the Reynolds conditions are used to treat the problem of the cavitation, in short journal bearings and in mechanical face seals. A universal solution to this problem is presented in some detail, in the sense that the solution of an ordinary nonlinear first order differential equation, that is necessary to describe the downstream boundary of the cavity, only depends on the eccentricity ratio, but not on the cavitation incipience eccentricity.