Interaction of inertia and cavitation in textured hydrodynamically lubricated bearing in very low sliding velocity considering slip

Abstract

Surface texturing is becoming an effective way for increasing the performance of hydrodynamic bearings. However, introducing the texture on the lubricated sliding contact may lead to the presence of the inertia effect as well as the cavitation effect. In this study, the correlation between the inertia and the cavitation in textured bearing is investigated in terms of hydrodynamic pressure and load support. The Navier-Stokes equation based on CFD and modified Reynolds equation are applied. In addition, the use of slip condition and its effect on the performance of bearing is of particular interest. The simulations are conducted in very low sliding velocity to address the low inertia effect. The result shows that increasing inertia effect can increase the load support, but the cavitation effects is not found in the bearing pattern in which the inertia is not significant. The other interesting result concludes that slip reduces the load support, but on the other hand slip also increases the load support depending on the texture length.