STABILITY CHARACTERISTICS OF ROUGH SUBMERGED OIL ELLIPTIC BEARINGS UNDER DYNAMIC LOAD

This paper discusses the effect of surface roughness on the stability of submerged oil elliptical journal bearings under unidirectional cons tant and unidirectional periodic load. The nonlinear transient simulat ion, taking the oil film history into account, has been used to predic t the threshold of instability. The average flow model of Patir and Ch eng (An average flow model for determining effects of three-dimensiona l roughness on partial hydrodynamic lubrication. Trans. ASME, Journal of Lubrication Technology, 1979, 100, 12-17) has been used to describe the surface roughness effects. The effect of ellipticity ratio and th at of various surface roughness parameters, viz., composite surface ro ughness, roughness orientation pattern and variance ratio on the stabi lity has been studied. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.