Inertia effect of textured lubricated contact on the bearing performance using CFD approach

Abstract

Numerous studies reported that inertia of the lubricant has been considered as one of physical parameters which has a strong effect on the load support of textured bearing. In the present study, based on two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique, the investigatation of the inertia effect on bearing performance is carried out varying the texture length. The Navier-Stokes equation coupled with the cavitation model are discretized using finite volume method and solved using the commercial software FLUENT®. The results show that the inertia increases the hydrodynamic film pressure and thus the load support. In addition, it is also found that increasing the texture length as well as Reynolds number will increase the cavitation region.