An Analysis of the Circumferentially Grooved Journal Bearing with Consideration of Lubricant Film Reformation

An analysis of a central, circumferentially grooved journal bearing has been undertaken. As well as considering the rupture of the lubricant, detailed attention has been paid to film reformation. A computer program has been developed which automatically locates the cavitation region without manual intervention and the numerical analysis technique developed to do this is fully described. Results for the steady state and dynamic performance characteristics of the bearing are presented and predictions compared with other published work where possible. The effect of not considering the reformation of the lubricant film is examined and it is concluded that satisfactory predictions of performance can be obtained for all parameters except the axial flowrate.