An Effect on the performance of worn journal bearing system using JFO cavitated model

ABSTRACT Journal bearings are among of the most common components in the industry due to their simple construction, low cost and high efficiency. Rotating shafts are supported by them, and during the transient periods of sequentially start-ups and shut-downs and extreme operation conditions also that occurred through their life time, provoke wear on the bearing pad. The objective of the current work is to make numerical analysis of a fluid film worn journal bearing for predicting fluid film pressure distribution and performance parameters at various wear depth parameters and at various eccentricities. In order to include the effect of transient wear Durfane model is used for film thickness calculation, also to investigate cavitation effect the Jacobson and Floberg (JFO) theory with Elrod algorithm is used. The solution domain is discretized into 72 * 10 nodes. The numerically simulated results of bearing characteristics parameters in terms of maximum fluid-film pressure, minimum fluid-film thickness, and lubricant flow rate have been presented. The simulated results suggest that for an accurate prediction of bearing characteristics data it is essential to include the effect of wear in the analysis of the hydrostatic journal bearing system.