The Influence of Surface Roughness on Elastohydrodynamic Journal Bearing With Non-Newtonian Lubricants

In this paper, the effect of surface roughness and elastic deformation of bearing liner on the static characteristics of journal bearings are presented. A power law model is developed for the elastohydrodynamic lubrication regime. The modified Reynolds equations with elasticity equation were formulated for the elastohydrodynamic journal bearings under heavy load conditions. Multigrid and multilevel technique with Newton’s method were used to calculated the elastohydrodynamic bearing to obtain the oil film pressure profile, oil film thickness profile, load capacity, attitude angle and friction coefficient at various surface roughness parameters. The static characteristics of the rough elastohydrodynamic journal bearing were compared with that of the rough hydrodynamic journal bearings. The results show that the surface roughness and elastic deformation significantly affect the static characteristics of journal bearings under severe operating conditions.