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Engineering Optimum Design of Fluid-Film Lubricated Bearings

Nenzi Wang , Chang-Li Ho & Kuo-Chiang Cha
a a a b

Chang Gung University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, Republic Of China
b

Chang Shan Institute of Science and Technology, 2nd Division, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, Republic Of China Version of record first published: 25 Mar 2008.

To cite this article: Nenzi Wang, Chang-Li Ho & Kuo-Chiang Cha (2000): Engineering Optimum Design of Fluid-Film Lubricated Bearings, Tribology Transactions, 43:3, 377-386 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10402000008982353

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Engineering Optimum Design of Fluid-Film Lubricated ~ e a r i n ~ s @

NENZI WANG and CHANG-LI H O
Chang G u n g University Department of Mechanical Engineering

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Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, Republic Of China and KUO-CHlANG CHA Chang Shan Institute of Science and Technology 2nd Division Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, Republic Of China

This strrdy presents an engineering approach for optitnizing perfortnance of fluid-film lubricated bearings. Unconstrained nonlinear programming methods, lattice search and simplex method, were used as the optimization schemes to improve the merit of studied bearings with two or more design variables. The ana1ysi.s of elliptical bearings shows high eccentricity ratio and two large pressure zones for high-speed stability can be obtained by muxitnizingjlm pressures in the upper and lower lobes. In this study, lattice method exhibits slightly more eficient search compared with that of simplex method in several two-variable opti-

mum designs. The a~ttomatic mesh generation technique used in the pocket-shaped bearing analysis rnakes the numerical optimization as a flexible design tool. The effect of side flow restrictions on the load-currying capacity of an optimizedpocket-shcrped slider bearing is clearly verified. The analysis of the aero.static bearing explains an example of multi-objective minimization. A similar procedure can be easily adopted to analyze bearings with other projles, or to muxinlize user-defined performance using more complicated models.

KEY WORDS
Optimization; Fluid Film Bearings; Slider Bearings Presented a s a Soclety of Tribologlsts and Lubrication Engineers P a ~ e at the STLEIASME Trlboloav Conference in Orlando, Florlda, r -. October lli13, 1999 Final manuscript approved August 21* Igg9

INTRODUCTION
T h e study of optimization methods in lubrication applications can b e dated back t o 1918 when Lord Rayleigh first discussed stepped bearings ( I ) . Later, he analyzed the action of various
= arc center of lower lobe of elliptical bearing = arc center of upper lobe of elliptical bearing = shaft center = film pressure, MPa = peak pressure in the lower lobe of elliptical bearing, MPa = peak pressure in the upper lobe of elliptical bearing, MPa = pump supply pressure, MPa = normalized airflow = frictional torque, N-m = merit of objective function in optimization problem = bearing velocity, rnlsec = weighting factors in Eq. (31 = bearing load, N = normalized load-carrying capacity = Cartesian coordinate or bearing sliding direction = normalized x, x1B = Cartesian coordinate or direction perpendicular to the bearing sliding direction = normalized y, ylL = Cartesian coordinate

= offset angle of elliptical bearing = orientation angle of elliptical bearing

= uniform interval length =ellipticity, mm = attitude angle = lubricant viscosity, mPa-sec = angular position of elliptical bearing = recess area of aerostatic pad, mm2 = bearing length (x-direction), mm = radial clearance, mm = orifice diameter, mm =eccentricity, mm = objective function in optimization problem = film thickness, mm = minimum film thickness, mm = bearing width (y-direction), mm = ellipticity ratio, d c , dimensionless = eccentricity ratio, elc, dimensionless = bearing speed, revlmin

N.WANG, HO AND K. CHA C.

clcarancc profiles and determined that the shape of hydrodynamic bcnring for maximum load-canying capacity is that with stcppcd cross section. However, very little progress was made until the high-speed digital conlputers are available for the numerical analysis of Reynolds equation and optimum design. In 1969, Seireg and Ezzat (2) presented an automated system for thc sclcctiori of the bearing parameters that optimize the perform;llicc of a hydrodynamic jourrial bearing under specified load and spccd. In their study, gradient search and univariate method wcrc ilscd for one variable design and multi-variable optimization, rcspcctivcly. Univariate method was also used to verify the ~ ~ n i q ~ ~ c ~ thesoptimunl design. Later, Rohde (3) obtained the of i c s optimi~nibearing profile for maximum load-carrying capacity of on infinite length journal bearing. The solution obtained was a concentric step bearing that yields a maximum load-carrying cnl~ncity. Rohde (4) also alialyzed one-dimensional slider bearing to clctcr~iiinc optimal film profile for minimum frictional force. the He colculatcd the optimum film profiles for inclined and stepped slidcrs for a given load by using a variational technique. However, for two-dimensional finite slider bearings, the performance ;~tlvantngcsobtained in the above one-dimensional analyses are not significant due to considerable side flows. Thus, a finite bearing with side flows must be considered in the lubrication analysis to ochicvc niore realistic performance estimation. In 1995, Zhang and Chang (5) studied an aerostatic journal bcaring and its optimization for maximum stability. The optimization was carried out by use of a direct method, the complex tncthod, for inequality constraints. The decision variables were orificc diameter, depth, width and length of an aerostatic bearing. I-lasliimoto (6) applied the short bearing assumption, simplified closcd-form design formulas were obtained for bearing parametcrs. Thc optimization was conducted by using a mathematical ~)rogrnmming. results showed the characteristics of optimized The design variables in both laminar and turbulent flow regimes were clnrifictl. Horaldsson et al. (7) studied water lubricated journal bcorings for reducing maximum film pressure. An analytical sensitivity analysis of the nonlinear problem was described and some rcsults of the shape optiniization were presented. As ;I liilmerical approach is chosen for fluid-film bearing analysis, numerical optimization is usually an indispensable tool i n tlic subsequent design procedure. In general, the pressure gencrntccl in :I fluid-film bearing depends on bearing dimensions, vclocity, lubricant viscosity, arid shaft position. The load and vclocity are usually specified and the minimum shaft diameter is often prcdetertnined. To complete the design, it will be necessary to dctcrlninc the bearing dimensions, e.g. clearance, and to select n proper lubricant if it is not already resolved. Thc objective function in a fluid-film bearing optimization problcm can be minimizing friction, maximizing load-canying capacity, minimizing temperature rise, minimizing lubricant flow, maximizing stability or any combination of the above objectives. As thc objective is decided, extended design variables give the flexibility in design but complicate the analysis. No single optilnizntion tncthod has been found to be the best, in terms of efficicncy and ease of implementation, for all lubrication problems. The objcctivc of this study is to present an engineering approach for optimizing performance of several fluid-film lubricated bear-

ings to illustrate some important characteristics of numerical optimizations.

OPTIMIZATION METHODS
Most of the lubrication analyses involve objective functions are not differentiable and numerical differentiation procedure may lead to instabilities the classical optimization techniques, e.g., gradient search, have limited utilization. Several commonly used indirect methods in solving constrained nonlinear programming problems are penalty function method, augmented Lagrange multiplier method, and transformation of variables technique. These methods transform the optimization problem into alternative formulation such that numerical solutions are sought by solving a sequence of unconstrained optimization problems (8). ( 9 ) . However, for a powerful and robust constrained nonlinear optimization technique, the stability and efficiency of adopted unconstrained optimization method is of extreme importance. Also, unconstrained optimization methods can be used directly to solve many lubrication analysis problems as demonstrated in this report. To meet the criterion of optimum design for engineering purposes, the methods selected should be easy to implement and have reasonable efficiency. Guided grid search (such as lattice search and pattern search) and simplex search are the two general methods used in direct search for unconstrained problems of two or more decision variables. There are many variations and modifications of these two search techniques. However, both methods can have similar modifications to improve optimization efficiency, such as extending the search step in the favorable search direction. In order to compare the efficiency of the two methods only main features of the methods are adopted. In this study, unconstrained nonlinear programming operations that do not require any derivative evaluations were chosen. Lattice and simplex methods, along with automatic mesh generation technique, are used to illustrate the flexibility, robustness, and ease of use of the nonlinear programming methods when solving various lubrication problems. Figure 1 shows successive golden section maximization procedure. In each calculation, the search region is reduced to 61.8 percent of its previous size. Eleven calculations will narrow the range of decision variable to 0.5 percent of its initial range. Figure 2 illustrates a successive search by using simplex method through reflection process. A simplex is the geometric formed by a set of n+l points in an n-dimensional space. The simplex is a triangle for two decision variables. The basic operations of simplex method are reflection, expansion, and contraction. For a maximization operation, the point defining a new simplex is obtained by reflecting from the lowest merit point. In Fig. 2, ui represents the merit of corresponding point i in a two-dimensional problem. Assuming triangle 123 is the starting simplex, if u, is smaller than u2 and u3, the coordinates of reflected point (x,, y,) to construct the new simplex is calculated as follows.

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Engineering Optimum Design of Fluid-Film Lubricated Bearings

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Fig. 1--Successive search by golden section method.

Fig. 3--Successive optimization by lattice method through marchlng process.

Fig. 2--Successive optimization by simplex method through reflection process.

If u, has higher merit than u, or u3, the reflection procedure continues. If u, is smaller than u2 and u3, the reflection is performed along the edge of points 2 and 3. And if u3 is smaller than u2, Eq. [I] is replaced by x, = 2 x, - x2, and y, = 2 y3 - y,, otherwise x, = 2 x, - x3, and y4 = 2 y2 - y3. If any of above two reflection procedures can not find higher merit, the new simplex is then contracted and the same procedure is repeated until the simplex can not move to higher merit again. In order to compare the efficiency of simplex method with that of lattice method, the expansion procedure was not used in this study. The detail of expansion procedure can be found in Refs. (8), (9). A lattice is the geometric formed by a set of 2n vertices in an n-dimensional space. For example, in a three-dimensional problem, the center of the lattice is (x, y, z) and six vertices are (x+Ax, Y 4 , (x-Ax, y ,z), (x, y+Ay, z), (x, Y-Ay,z), (x, Y,z + W , and (x, y, z-&).The starting point of optimization is the center of the begin-

ning lattice. Several marching steps of a lattice search for twovariable optimization is shown in Fig. 3. Since decision variables y may have different units, du and A usually are different. The calculation is performed at the vertices and the center. The vertex with optimal merit is taken as new center. The search is continued in this manner until the optimal value of objective function is reached at the center. Then, the new lattice can be contracted and the same marching procedure is repeated until the optimal is found again. Note that the primary procedure of simplex search is that the movement of the simplex is always away from the worst result, while lattice search is marching in the optimal merit direction. For a two-dimensional problem, in each lattice generated three new function calculations are required, compared with only one calculation when a new simplex is constructed. However, as will be seen later in this study, the zigzag path characterized by simplex method in the search process is not as straightforward as the path generated by lattice search. The operations of simplex and lattice searches were conducted by using equidistant triangle and lattice. The contraction was performed only once for both methods and the size of search-grid was reduced to one third of its initial size in this study. To ensure global optimum was found, the solution obtained by an optimization method was verified by starting at a different initial point or using a different method. Convergence tests were conducted in the numerical analyses to ensure the finite different or finite element grids were sufficiently small. The bearing models were verified by the validity of the conservation of lubricant flow in the computer programs.

OPTIMIZATION OF ELLIPTICAL BEARINGS

The first example presents in this study is optimization of elliptical bearings. The so-called elliptical bearing is actually not elliptic in cross-section but is made up of two circular arcs whose centers, 0, and O,, are displaced along a common straight line from the center of the bearing, (Fig. 4). For an oriented elliptical bearing, the orientation angle is P and the angular position 8 started counterclockwise from the upper lobe as shown in Fig. 5.

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Radial Clearance (mm)

Fig. 4--Schematic dlagram of an elllptlcal bearing.

Fig. &Effect of radial clearance on minimum film thickness and attitude angle of a journal bearing.

position the eccentricities and offset angles with respect to the bearing and lobe centers will be different. The geometrical relationship between these parameters is shown in Fig. 4 and can be 2 2 mathematically related as follows. For the lower lobe, E + e - 2e 2 2 E COS(TC-@=el . Or dividing out by c , n, = d n 2 + m 2 + 2 nmcosa , where m=dc is ellipticity ratio, and n=e/c is eccentricity ratio. c c a nsma) Also, from Fig. 4, or ,F O ~ upper lobe, the

==-

(GI.

Flg. 5--Schematic diagram of an orlented elliptical bearing.

Sincc elliptical bearings are commonly adopted in high-speed bcaring applications, a thermohydrodynamic model may be used to carefully estimate the thermal effects and possible thermal clcformation of bearing surfaces on the bearing performance (10). However, if constant effective viscosity through the film is not assumed the governing equation leads to great complexity. To illustrate the optimization procedure, the analysis of elliptical bearings is based on the numerical solution of steady-state isoviscous and incompressible Reynolds equation, which can be cxprcssed as

Finite difference formulation and successive over-relaxation nicthod wcre used to solve Eq. 121. The advantage 1s that Reynolds boundary conditions can be conveniently incorporated. The solution of Eq. 121 results in a pressure distribution based on the given film profile and boundary conditions. From the pressure distribution, the load-carrying capacity and other bearing performance p:~ri~~nctcrs be calculated. It is clear that for any given shaft can

,and similarly " " ' I l l .The m=O corresponds to a circular bearing and for m=l the shaft will be in contact with the bearing. In some extreme cases, such as higher load and large orientation angle, the elliptical bearings can be operated at the condition of m+n slightly greater than one. For a given bearing geometry and ellipticity ratio, an equilibrium position of a vertically loaded shaft is determined by the condition that the summation of horizontal film pressures equals zero. Since the pressure distribution is affected by the position of the shaft, and the shaft position is a function of eccentricity and offset angle. Newton's method was used to solve the coupled nonlinear equations for eccentricity and offset angle. Traditionally, optimization of minimum film thickness is the primary interest in designing a journal bearing, the other factors such as frictional power, temperature rise, and lubricant flow are secondary considerations. Figure 6 shows the effect of radial clearance on the minimum film thickness and attitude angle of a plain journal bearing that has the same diameter and width of the studied elliptical bearing. The optimal clearance for maximizing minimum film thickness is 0.1 mm. However, the journal bearing running at optimal minimum film thickness with large attitude angle is not suitable for high-speed operation due to stability problem. The computer program was written in Fortran 90 and run on a Pentium 111266 IBM compatible PC. The calculations were based on the bearing parameters and lubrication data listed in Table 1. The results of maximizing minimum film thickness in a non-oriented elliptical bearing are shown in Fig. 7. The optimal clearance is 0.157 mrn and minimum film thickness is 0.046 mm. The results of search paths for optimizing minimum film thickness with ellipticity ratio and orientation as the decision variables are displayed in Figs. 8(a)-8(b). The lower two curves of search results in Fig.
""na

% = 4 n ' + m 2 - 2 nmcora

Engineering Optimum Design of Fluid-Film Lubricated Bearings

I GEOMETRY LUBRICATION USED IN THE AND DATA TABLE-BEARING ELLIPTICAL BEARINGOPTIMIZATION

Ellintical Reorin2 Ohicctive Function: M u . h, Desicn Variahle : Cleamnce

Shaft Diameter, D Bearing Width, B Effective Viscosity,p -

speed,-^- -

7 -

125 mm 95 mrn 6.9 mPa-sec1500 rpm

Dium. = 125 m : Width = 95 rnm m Clearance = 0.157 mm Ellipticily Rxtio = 0.5

Orientaion = 0' ' Speed = 1.5GU rpm Load= 2. 40 N 9 Effective Viscosity = 6.9 ~P;I-scc

i
prufilc

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TABLE 2-CALCULATEDRESULTS MAXIMIZING OF MINIMUM FILM THICKNESS ELLIPTICAL IN AN BEARING i SEARCH hg STARTING POINT OPTIMAL METHOD (m, I9 (mm) (O.5,Os) 0.0522 1 97.5 Lattice 0.0521 112.3 Simplex - +-----1 Lattice 0.0520 ;: :z D (0.4,30') 0.0521 Simplex

i
1

~~- -

TABLE 3-CAI.CULATED RESULTS MAXIMIZING OF Pz,m, ELLIPTICAL BEARING - . - --

+ P22m,

IN AN

SEARCH STARTING POINT OPTIMAL POINT MINIMUM FILM THICKNESS (see.) (mm) METHOD (m. p) (m, p) (0.805,59.25') 0.0196 212.5 Lattice (0.5,0') (0.808,60.13') 0.0194 220.5 Simplex

CPU

Fig. 7-Pressure distribution along the centerline of the bearing In the direction of sliding of an optimized elliptical bearing.

8(a) were started from the same point and the upper two curves were the results from randomly selected starting points. It can be seen that four search paths are ended near the optimal merit point within the search-grid resolution. The calculated results are summarized in Table 2. In this two-variable optimization simulation, the computational time of lattice method is less than that of simplex method. For the optimal elliptical bearing, the ellipticity ratio is 0.125, and orientation angle is 25". The average minimum film thickness for the four cases is 0.051 mm which is the same as that of the optimal journal bearing. In order to show the stability gain by using an elliptical bearing as compare with that obtained from a plain journal bearing, the objective was to make use of two pressure wedges to stabilize the shaft. The optimization procedure adopted in the computer model was to maximize the summation of the squared peak pressures, i.e. 2 2 PI., + p2- , where plmnx and pZmnx the peak pressure in the are lower and upper lobes of the elliptical bearing, respectively. The decision variables used were ellipticity ratio and orientation of the major diameter axis of the elliptical bearing. The search paths of maximizing the film pressure in the lower and upper lobes of the elliptical bearing are shown in Figs. 9(a)-9(b). The zig-zag pattern of simplex method is clearly shown in the search path. In this example, Lattice method also provides slightly better efficiency than that of simplex method. Maximizing film pressure in the two

Elliptical Ratio paths of maximizing minimum film thickness In an Fig. 8(a)-Search elliptical bearing. lobes results in a large eccentricity ratio and two peak film pressures with almost the same magnitude. This contributes stabilizing forces in the optimized elliptical bearing. Figures 9(c)-9(d) show the plots of pressure distribution of the optimized elliptical bearing. The simulation results are tabulated in Table 3. Figures 10(a)-10(b) show the results obtained by lattice search for minimizing frictional torque in the elliptical bearing. The bearing load is 2940 N. The three decision variables selected were ellipticity ratio, orientation, and radial clearance. The results are listed in Table 4. The frictional torque is reduced to 52.9 percent of that of the initial design. The reduced torque is mainly due to increased clearance and reduced ellipticity ratio. It can be seen that the effect of orientation on friction is small. Also note that the minimum film thickness is about the same for both bearings.

OPTIMIZATION OF SLIDER BEARINGS

Thrust bearings used in rotating machinery to support axial loads can be either rolling-element bearings or fluid-film bearings.

N. WANG, HOAND K. CHA C.

Ellivtical Bearing Dbicctivc Fusction: p,,'- + p _ : Desinn Varinblq : Ellipticity Ratio Oricnlntion
Diam. = 125 mm; Width = 95 mm C c r n c= 0.105 mm lanc Ellipticity Rario = 0.805
W

Orientation = 59.7" S p e d = 1500rpm Load= 2.940 N Effective Viscosity = 6.9 mPa-rec

pressure profile

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Fig. 8(b)-Effect of elllptlclty ratio and orientation on minimum film thickness in en elllptlcal bearlng.

o.m!
0

, . ;.
PO

. *, .
180

. ,
270

'. .

360

Circumferential Location (deg.)

Fig. 9(c)-Pressure distribution along the centerline of the bearlng in the direction of sliding of an optimized elliptical bearing.

Ellipticity Ratio Flg. 9(a)--Search paths of maxlmlzlng film pressures In the lower and upper lobes of an elliptical bearlng.

Fig. 9(d)-Pressure maximizing p2,m,x

dlstribution of the optimized elliptical bearing for

+ P22,mar

Fig. 9(b)-Effect of elllpticlty ratlo and orientation on the normalized P21,msr P22,max an elliptlcal bearing. + of

For hydrodynamic bearings, the load-carrying capacity arises entirely from the pressure generated by the relative motion of thrust plate over the bearing pads. 'The magnitude of the pressure developed is a function of the profile of the film. In this section, two slider bearings (taper and step bearings) with no apparent side flow restrictions were optimized and the results are compared with those obtained from pocket-shaped bearing to determine the effect of side f ! ~ wrestraint on load-carrying capacity. Both finite element method and automatic mesh generation scheme were used in this study for effectively handling irregular film profile of pocket-shaped bearing. To simplify the analysis, the bearing length and width as well as the minimum film thick-

Engineering Optimum Design of Fluid-Film Lubricated Bearings

-Minimm FrictionDcrin
0.5

.......Original Design

1.2

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Ciumferential Location (deg.)

Fig. 11--Schematic diagram of a taper bearing.

Fig. lO(a)-Comparison of film thickness and pressure distributions of two elliptlcal bearings.

Fig. 12-Schematic diagram of a step bearing. search path of the optimized elliptical bearing for Flg. 10(b)-Lattlce mlnlmizing frictlonal torque.

ness of the bearing were fixed to demonstrate the optimization procedure for finite slider bearings with several design parameters. In this study, golden section method for one variable and lattice search technique for multiple variables were employed to cany out the maximization procedure. In each calculation, a fixed film geometry was applied and the lubricant was considered to be incon~pressibleand isoviscous (Eq. [2]). Finite element method (FEM) was used in this study to determine the pressure distribution of slider bearings. In contrast to finite difference method, FEM offers flexibility in handling step bearings where film profiles are discontinuous and for bearings with irregular shapes such as pocket-shaped bearings. In this study a variation approach adopted for the two-dimensional lubrication problem was used. Two-dimensional, threenode triangular element was employed in the numerical scheme. Details of the assembly procedure, a bookkeeping procedure to form the fluidity matrix are given in Ref. (11) and will not be discussed here. In this example, the objective was to establish a numerical procedure to obtain the optimal film profiles for maximizing the load-carrying capacity of the slider bearings. The

Fig. 13--Schematic diagram of a 3-point pocket-shaped bearing.

schematic diagrams of the slider bearings are shown in Figs. I I 13 and the basic dimensions of the bearings are listed in Table 5.

N. WANG, HO AND K. CHA C.

Orifice Aerostatic Recess

Fig. 16Schematic diagram of a square aerostatic pad.

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X-axis Fig. 14--Normalized mapped reglon of a pocket-shaped slider bearing. A = (0.25, 0.1), B = (0.5, 0.25), C = (0.6, 0.5), no. of elements = 384, no. of nodes = 215.

X-axis

Fig. 15--Normallzed mapped reglon of the optimal pocket-shaped slider bearing. A = (0.525,0.15), B = (0.725, 0.225), C = (0.775, 0.5), no. of elements = 640, no. of nodes = 349.

l;\l3l.lr

5-BlihRlNG GEOMETRY LUBRICATIONUSED IN THE AND DATA SLIDER BEARING I M I Z A T I O N O~

.

Minimi1111 Thickness, ho --Film Ltrbricnnt Viscosity, I( Sliding Velocity. U . .-13cnring Lcngth, L - Bcarine Widlh. B
-

50.8 rnrn 50.8 rnrn

T~el.1: 6-NUMERICAL CONVERGENCEOF LOAD-CARRYING TESTS CAI>ACITY POCKET-SHAPED SHOWNFIG.14 FOR 'I'HII BEARING IN
.
-

-- --- -~

NUMHIII<1 NOI)I!S0'

~-

N u M I ~ ..R E OF
. ~

ELEMENTS

127
163

.-

--2 O ~ --p 2

. -

189 349 447

. -

--

288 336 640 ~828

(N) LOAD 8,193 8,173 8,154 8,085 8,075

into a non-rectangular region by blending function method (12). For a pocket-shaped bearing, the square pad can be represented by two mapped regions, i.e. pocket recess and bearing land, with the same boundary points. In Fig. 14 three points, namely points A (%3,) (0.25,0.2), B (%G) (0.5,0.25), and C ( 3 Y ) (0.6, = = 7 . ,= 0.5), define the shape of the pocket. The number of the nodes and elements can be easily adjusted in the computer program that is essential to the optimization analysis. During the numerical calculations, the positions of points A, B, and C as well as the height of the step were adjusted independently using lattice search algorithm. Numerical convergence tests for the bearings with the same shape of pocket as shown in Fig. 14 were carried out by using FEM. The results are listed in Table 6. It can be seen from the calculated results, the bearing with 349-node and 640-element gives accurate estimation of load-carrying capacity. Based on this analysis, the number of the element of subsequent optimization analysis was chosen as 640 for pocket-shaped slider bearing. For the taper bearing, the decision variable of the optimization problem was the slope of inclined surface of the slider, and golden section method was applied to calculate the optimal merit of load-carrying capacity. For the step bearing, the decision variables chosen were step height and the location of step. The decision variables for the pocket-shaped bearing analysis were step height, and the locations of three points defining the pocket shape. Lattice search was used to find the optimal geometry of the latter two bearings. The calculated load-carrying capacities for the optimal taper, step, and pocket-shaped bearings are 5,194 N, 5,586 N, and 9,222 N, respectively. The simulation results are summarized in Table 7. For the optimal pocket-shaped bearing, the load-canying capacity is 1.65 times larger than that of optimal step bearing. Also, note that the optimal step height is increased from 0.019 mm in step bearing to 0.03 1 mm in optimal pocket-shaped bearing. The increased step height means the pocket-shaped bearing can sustain more start-stop operations. If the step is too small, the bearing will worn smooth and flat more quickly, and then eventually seized. The profile of the optimized pocket-shaped slider bearing is shown in Fig. 15.

OPTIMIZATION OF AEROSTATIC BEARINGS

In the analysis of pocket-shaped bearing, an automatic mesh generation neth hod was adopted to transform a rectangular region In this section, the air-bearing model and the solution scheme presented by Wang and Chang (13) was adopted to analyze the

Engineering Optimum Design of Fluid-Film Lubricated Bearings

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Fig. 17(a)-Search path of a multi-objective minimization problem with three design variables.

Fig. 17(b)-Pressure

distribution of an optimized aerostatic pad.

TABLE 7-LOAD-CARRYING CAPACITY OFTIMIZED OF THE SLIDER BEARINGS ---.-I I I

- -

I Step

._

the minimization procedure, both parameters were normalized to unity according to the initial conditions. In the computational model, the width of the square pad was 100 rnm and a fixed air gap 0.01 mm was chosen. The discharge coefficient of the orifice was 0.7. The simulation results are summarized in Table 8. The calculated merit of Eq. [3] is reduced to 0.645 from l .O. Reductions of airflow and load-carrying capacity are 69.1 and 46.2 percent, respectively. The trade-off of reduced airflow and load-canying capacity may be adjusted by changing the weighting factors. Figure 17(a) represents the optimization path for the three design variables using lattice search. Figure 17(b) shows the pressure distribution of the optimized aerostatic pad.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This study presents a numerical optimization procedure for several fluid-film lubricated bearings. Various objective functions and up to six decision variables optimizations are demonstrated. The analysis of elliptical bearings shows high eccentricity ratio and two large pressure zones for high-speed stability can be obtained by maximizing film pressures in the upper and lower lobes. However, the objective can be specified alternatively, such as to minimize the driving force of half-frequency whirl due to generated film pressure or to minimize the attitude angle of the elliptical bearing. The calculated results should be verified with detailed rotor dynamic analysis or experiments to ensure stability of the bearing. The automatic mesh generation technique used in the pocketshaped bearing analysis makes the numerical optimization as a flexible design tool. The effect of side flow restrictions on the load-canying capacity of an optimized pocket-shaped slider bearing is clearly verified. The analysis of the aerostatic bearing illustrates an example of multi-objective minimization. Both of simplex and lattice searches provide a considerable saving on CPU time over exhaust search on whole domain since each step in the search is guided by previous calculation. In this study, lattice method shows slightly more efficient search com-

aerostatic bearing. Figure 16 represents a schematic diagram of an aerostatic pad. 'The design variables used in the aerostatic pad simulation were recess area, orifice diameter, and air supply pressure. The amount of airflow and the load-carrying capacity of the pad are affected by these three variables. For a fixed air gap, if airflow is decreased, the load-carrying capacity of the pad will also decreased. To compromise the performance, a multi-objective minimization task is obvious. The objective function can be written as a weighted sum of airflow and the reciprocal of load-carrying capacity,

is normalized airflow, where wl and w2 are weighting factors, and is normalized load-carrying capacity. At the beginning of

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pnrcd with that of simplex method in several two-variable optimum designs. And the programming of lattice search is simpler than the coding of simplex method in the multi-dimensional cvcnts. In general, to better understand the design region a coarse cxhaust scarch over the whole domain should be conducted first. To cnsure the global optimum is obtained, conducting the same seoscli procedure with randomly selected starting points or using diffcrcnt methods are recommended. If thcrmal effects are not negligible, the lubrication models used i n this study can be replaced by using more complex models such as the thermohydrodynamic (THD) model proposed by Wang and Seireg (14), (15). Thus, in a computationally intensive task, such as transient THD analysis or air-bearing optimization problcm, CPU time can be significantly minimized by using an appropriate optimization technique. Thc selection of the objective function is one of the most important decisions in an optimum design process. And the choice of objcctive function is usually governed by the natural of the problcm. Nevertheless, the schemes suitable for engineering optiliiuln ctcsign of fluid-film lubricated bearings should be easily implcmcntcd as demonstrated in this study. Similar procedure can bc adoptcd to analyze bearings with other profiles and to develop ncw ways of improving the performance of existing designs. It can also be used to find creative solutions to multi-objective probIcms.

( 2 ) Seireg. A. A. and Ezzat, A., "Optimum Design of Hydrodynamic Journal Bearings." ASME Trans., Jour. of Lubr. Tech., pp 516-523, (1969). ( 3 ) Rohde, S. M.. "A Demonstrably Optimum One Dimensional Journal Bearing," ASME Trans., Jour. of Lubr. Tech., pp 188-192, (1 972). ( 4 ) Rohde, S. M., "The Optimum Slider Bearing in Terms of Friction," ASME Trans., Jour. of Lubr. Tech., pp 275-279, (1972). (5) Zhang, R. and Chang H. S., "A New Type of HydrostaticlHydrodynamicGas Journal Bearing and its Optimization for Maximum Stability," Trib. Trans., 38, pp 589-594, (1995). (6) Hashimoto, H., "Optimum Design of High-Speed. Short Journal Bearings by Mathematical Programming," Trib. Trans., 40, pp 283-293, (1997). (7) Haraldsson,A.. Han.C..Tschoepe, H. and Wriggers,P.,"Shape Optimization of a Lubricated Journal Bearing with Regard lo the Distribution of Pressure in the 29, Fluid:' Ertgr. Opti~ilization, pp 259-275, (1997). (8) Rao, S. S., E~lgirteerir~g Oprimizarion Theory and Practice. 3rd Ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., (1996). (9) Seireg, A. A. and Dodriguez. J.. Optimiziilg the Shape of Mechonical Elements and Structures. Marcel Dekker, lnc., ( 1997). (10) Ma, M. and Taylor, C.. "Experimental Investigation of Thermal Effects in Circular and Elliptical Plain Journal Bearings." Trib. Inr'l.. 29. pp 19-26. (1996). (11) Booker, J. F. and Huebner, K. H., "Application of Finite-Element Methods to Lubrication: An Engineering Approach," ASME Trans., Jour. oflubr. Tech., 94, pp 313-323, (1972). (12) Gordon, W. J. and Hall, C.A., "Construction of Curvilinear Co-ordinate Systems and Application to Mesh Generation," Inr'l. Jour. Num. Methods Eng., 7, pp 461-477, (1973). (13) Wang, N. and Chang, C., "An Application of Newton's Method to the Lubrication of Air-Lubricated Bearings," Trib. Trans., 42, pp. 419-424, (1999). ( 1 4 ) Wang, N. and Seireg, A., "Thermohydrodynamic Lubrication Analysis Incorporating Thermal Expansion Across the Film," ASME Trans.. Jour. of Trib., 116. pp 681-689, (1994). ( I S ) Wang, N. and Seireg,A.. "Empirical Prediction of the Shear Layer Thickness in Lubricating Films," ASME Trans.. Jour. of Trib., 117, pp 444-449. (1995).

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