Dynamic and Thermal Performance Analysis of Textured Bearings with TiO2 Nanoparticles

Abstract

This work investigates the merged influences of rectangular surface textures and titanium dioxide nanoparticle additives on the dynamic and thermal characteristics of journal bearings utilising computational fluid dynamics in Fluent software. A fluid-structure interaction approach was applied to account for elastic deformation, while the Zwart–Gerber–Belamri method was employed to simulate cavitation effects. The analysis focused on texture depths ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 and eccentricity ratios between 0.2 and 0.8, examining critical zones of the bearing surface: convergence, divergence, and pressure-increasing regions. Results revealed that an optimal texture depth of 1.0 and an eccentricity ratio of 0.3 in the pressure-increasing zone led to significantly enhanced dynamic and thermal characteristics compared to untextured bearings. Adding nanoparticles further improved performance, achieving levels surpassing textured bearings without additives in the same zone.