Effect of Eccentricity Ratio on the Hydrodynamic Performance of Journal Bearing Considering Cavitation

Hydrodynamically lubricated journal bearings are traditionally designed using Reynolds boundary condition which is questionable. This theory provides acceptable results for modelling cavitation in bearing, but a better understanding of the characteristics including cavitation can be achieved by modeling multi-phase flow. For this reason, the main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the eccentricity ratio on the performance of the journal bearing including multi-phase cavitation based on computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method. The Navier-Stokes and the continuity equation, as well as the cavitation models, have been solved by the finite volume method. The simulation results show that increasing the eccentricity ratio will enhance the hydrodynamic pressure as well as the load support. However, a contrary result is found in terms of friction force. The large eccentricity ratio does not much affect the friction force.