Characteristics of the Main Journal Bearings of an Engine Based on Non-linear Dynamics

Many simple nonlinear main journal bearing models have been studied theoretically, but the connection to existing engineering system has not been equally investigated. The consideration of the characteristics of engine main journal bearings may provide a prediction of the bearing load and lubrication. Due to the strong non-linear features in bearing lubrication procedure, it is difficult to predict those characteristics. A non-linear dynamic model is described for analyzing the characteristics of engine main journal bearings. Components such as crankshaft, main journals and con rods are found by applying the finite element method. Non-linear spring/dampers are introduced to imitate the constraint and supporting functions provided by the main bearing and oil film. The engine gas pressure is imposed as excitation on the model via the engine piston, con rod, etc. The bearing reaction force is calculated over one engine cycle, and meanwhile, the oil film thickness and pressure distribution are obtained based on Reynolds differential equation. It can be found that the maximum bearing reaction force always occurs when the maximum cylinder pressure arises in the cylinder adjacent to that bearing. The simulated minimum oil film thickness, which is 3 μm, demonstrates the reliability of the main journal bearings. This non-linear dynamic analysis may save computing efforts of engine main bearing design and also is of good precision and close connection to actual engine main journal bearing conditions.

Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Fluid Structure Interaction Techniques for Calculating the 3D Transient Flow of Journal Bearings Coupled with Rotor Systems

Journal bearings are important parts to keep the high dynamic performance of rotor machinery. Some methods have already been proposed to analysis the flow field of journal bearings, and in most of these methods simplified physical model and classic Reynolds equation are always applied. While the application of the general computational fluid dynamics （CFD）-fluid structure interaction （FSI） techniques is more beneficial for analysis of the fluid field in a journal bearing when more detailed solutions are needed. This paper deals with the quasi-coupling calculation of transient fluid dynamics of oil film in journal bearings and rotor dynamics with CFD-FSI techniques. The fluid dynamics of oil film is calculated by applying the so-called ＂dynamic mesh＂ technique. A new mesh movement approacb is presented while the dynamic mesh models provided by FLUENT are not suitable for the transient oil flow in journal bearings. The proposed mesh movement approach is based on the structured mesh. When the joumal moves, the movement distance of every grid in the flow field of bearing can be calculated, and then the update of the volume mesh can be handled automatically by user defined function （UDF）. The journal displacement at each time step is obtained by solving the moving equations of the rotor-bearing system under the known oil film force condition. A case study is carried out to calculate the locus of the journal center and pressure distribution of the journal in order to prove the feasibility of this method. The calculating results indicate that the proposed method can predict the transient flow field of a journal bearing in a rotor-bearing system where more realistic models are involved. The presented calculation method provides a basis for studying the nonlinear dynamic behavior of a general rotor-bearing system.

STUDY ON THE INFLUENCES OF BUBBLY OIL ON THE CAVITATION EROSION IN JOURNAL BEARINGS OF ENGINES

A simulating experimental device for journal bearings of engines is established by use of the mechanism of ultrasonic vibration This device can make the pressure inside the oil film changed at ultrasonic frequency,which enable the specimen surface to be damaged by cavitation erosion in a comparatively short time Connecting with the bubbly oil producing device,this rig can investigate the influence of bubbly oil on the cavitation erosion Through detailed experimental research it is found that the bubbly oil decreases the cavitation erosion in journal bearings of engines This result is analyzed reasonably from mechanism of cavitation erosion.

Stability analysis of long hydrodynamic journal bearings based on the journal center trajectory

In this study,we observe that there are two threshold speeds(stability threshold speed and second threshold speed)for the long journal bearing,which is different for the short bearing.When the rotating speed is below the stability threshold speed,the stability boundary nearly coincides with the clearance circle,and the journal center gradually returns to the equilibrium point after being released at an initial point.If the rotating speed is between the stability threshold speed and the second threshold speed,after being released at an initial point,the journal center converges to a contour containing the equilibrium point.In this situation,for a higher rotating speed,the corresponding contour is also larger.When the rotating speed exceeds the second threshold speed,the journal gradually moves towards the bearing surface after being released at an initial point.

Transformation between polar and rectangular coordinates of stiffness and dampness parameters in hydrodynamic journal bearings

The stiffness and dampness parameters of journal bearings are required in rectangular coordinates for analyzing the stability boundary and threshold speed of oil film bearings.On solving the Reynolds equation,the oil film force is always obtained in polar coordinates;thus,the stiffness and dampness parameters can be easily obtained in polar coordinates.Therefore,the transformation between the polar and rectangular coordinates of journal bearing stiffness and dampness parameters is discussed in this study.

NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL ELASTOHYDRODYNAMIC LUBRICATION FOR HEAVILY-LOADED FINITE JOURNAL BEARINGS

Elastohydrodynamic lubrication theory is combination of classical hydrodynamic lubrication and elastic theory. A coupling of finite element and boundary element method was applied to the analysis of 3-D elastohydro-dynamic lubrication for heavily-loaded finite journal bearings. In order to overcome difficulties of convergence at high eccentricity ratios, an iterative scheme was provided in this paper. The scheme called weighted average method was successfully carried out in the iterative procedures of a set of nonlinear equations that was constituted by a 2-D Reynolds' equation, a viscosity-pressure equation as well as 3-D elasticity equations. The analysis yields performances parameters and minimum film thickness of the finite journal bearings under heavy loading.

Diagnosis System for Journal Bearings on the Basis of Spectrograph and Ferrography Analysis

A diagnosis system and a diagnosis example for journal bearings, based on the analysis with ferrography and spectrometric oil analysis is introduced. It is able to predict the failures of journal bearings on three levels. Also, the failure modes and diagnosis rules of journals are described.

Analysis of Thermoelastohydrodynamic Performance of Journal Misaligned Engine Main Bearings

To understand the engine main bearings＇ working condition is important in order to improve the performance of engine. However, thermal effects and thermal effect deformations of engine main bearings are rarely considered simultaneously in most studies. A typical finite element model is selected and the effect of thermoelastohydrodynamic（TEHD） reaction on engine main bearings is investigated. The calculated method of main bearing＇s thermal hydrodynamic reaction and journal misalignment effect is finite difference method, and its deformation reaction is calculated by using finite element method. The oil film pressure is solved numerically with Reynolds boundary conditions when various bearing characteristics are calculated. The whole model considers a temperature-pressure-viscosity relationship for the lubricant, surface roughness effect, and also an angular misalignment between the journal and the bearing. Numerical simulations of operation of a typical I6 diesel engine main bearing is conducted and importance of several contributing factors in mixed lubrication is discussed. The performance characteristics of journal misaligned main bearings under elastohydrodynamic（EHD） and TEHD loads of an I6 diesel engine are received, and then the journal center orbit movement, minimum oil film thickness and maximum oil film pressure of main bearings are estimated over a wide range of engine operation. The model is verified through the comparison with other present models. The TEHD performance of engine main bearings with various effects under the influences of journal misalignment is revealed, this is helpful to understand EHD and TEHD effect of misaligned engine main bearings.

The Prediction of Dynamic Coefficients for Tilting-Pad Journal Bearings Based on an AGA-BP Neural Network

To provide real-time dynamic coefficients of tilting-pad journal bearings( TPJBs) for the dynamic analysis of a rotor-bearing system accurately,an improved error back propagation( BP) neural network model is built in this paper.First,the samples are gained by solving the Reynolds equation with the finite differential method based on hydrodynamic lubrication theory.Secondly,the adaptive genetic algorithm( AGA) is applied to optimize the initial weights and thresholds of the BP neural network before training.Then,with a number of trial calculations,the optimum parameters for the neural network are obtained.Finally,an application case of the neural network is given as well as the results analysis.The results show that the AGA can efficiently prevent the training of the neural network from falling into a local minimum,and the AGA-BP neural network of dynamic coefficients for TPJBs built in this paper can meet the demand of engineering.

Performance behaviour of elliptical-bore journal bearings lubricated with solid granular particulates

Journal bearings operating in hot environments and at high temperatures experience accelerated degra- dation of lubricating oils. In such situations, dry granular particulates have emerged as potential media for providing lubrication in journal bearings in place of lubricating oils. Granular particulates do not degrade thermally, even at considerably high temperatures. This work explores the static and dynamic perfor- mance characteristics of elliptical-bore journal bearings lubricated with granular particulates. It is found that a bearing lubricated with a larger size （2 μm） particles offers better performance compared with that using smaller size （1μm） particles. Bore ellipticity reduces the load-carrying capacity and increases side leakage and the coefficient of friction; however, rotor stability is marginally improved at low eccentricity ratios （〈0.6）, followed by significant improvement at high eccentricity ratios （〉0.6）.

Effects of Load Direction on Performance of Tiliting Pad Journal Bearings

At the previous works for tilting journal pad bearings （TPJBs）, most TPJBs are designed to operate with the load either directly on-pad（LOP） or directly between-pad（LBP）. However, in practice, in some cases, the load direction can change dramatically in operation. With the current requirements for the analysis of dynamic characteristics of the rotor-bearing systems, the effects of the load direction on the bearing performance must be known. So, in this paper, the effects of load direction on the static and dynamic characteristics of TPJBs are obtained with theoretical analysis based on the hydrodynamic lubrication theory, and the influence of load direction on the performance of TPJBs in different structure and operating parameters is also analysed. The results show that the load direction has considerable effects on the static and dynamic characteristics of the TPJBs, especially for the TPJBs that are operating under heavy load and high rotor speed. And for the operating condition that load direction changed rapidly, TPJBs with more pads, smaller length to diameter ratio, larger clearance ratio and smaller perload ratio can reduce the performance fluctuation with the variation of load direction.

Approximate Solution of Oil Film Load-carrying Capacity of Turbulent Journal Bearing with Couple Stress Flow

The instability of the rotor dynamic system supported by oil journal bearing is encountered frequently, such as the half speed whirl of the rotor, which is caused by oil film lubricant with nonlinearity. Currently, more attention is paid to the physical characteristics of oil film due to an oil-lubricated journal bearing being the important supporting component of the bearing-rotor systems and its nonlinear nature. In order to analyze the lubrication characteristics of journal bearings efficiently and save computational c[~brts, an approximate solution of nonlinear oil film forces of a finite length turbulent journal bearing with couple stress flow is proposed based on Sommerfeld and Ocvirk numbers. Reynolds equation in lubrication of a finite length turbulent .journal bearing is solved based on multi-parametric principle. Load-carrying capacity of nonlinear oil film is obtained, and the results obtained by different methods are compared. The validation of the proposed method is verified, meanwhile, the relationships of load-carrying capacity versus eccentricity ratio and width-to-diameter ratio under turbulent and couple stress working conditions are analyzed. The numerical results show that both couple stress flow and eccentricity ratio have obvious influence on oil film pressure distribution, and the proposed method approximates the load-carrying capacity of turbulent journal bearings efficiently with various width-to-diameter ratios. This research proposes an approximate solution of oil film load-carrying capacity of turbulent journal bearings with different width-to-diameter ratios, whicb are suitable for high eccentricity ratios and heavy loads.

Bifurcation and Chaos Analysis of Nonlinear Rotor System with Axial-grooved Gas-lubricated Journal Bearing Support

Axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearings have been widely applied to precision instrument due to their high accuracy, low friction, low noise and high stability. The rotor system with axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearing support is a typical nonlinear dynamic system. The nonlinear analysis measures have to be adopted to analyze the behaviors of the axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearing-rotor nonlinear system as the linear analysis measures fail. The bifurcation and chaos of nonlinear rotor system with three axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearing support are investigated by nonlinear dynamics theory. A time-dependent mathematical model is established to describe the pressure distribution in the axial-grooved compressible gas-lubricated journal bearing. The time-dependent compressible gas-lubricated Reynolds equation is solved by the differential transformation method. The gyroscopic effect of the rotor supported by gas-lubricated journal bearing with three axial grooves is taken into consideration in the model of the system, and the dynamic equation of motion is calculated by the modified Wilson-0-based method. To analyze the unbalanced responses of the rotor system supported by finite length gas-lubricated journal bearings, such as bifurcation and chaos, the bifurcation diagram, the orbit diagram, the Poincar6 map, the time series and the frequency spectrum are employed. The numerical results reveal that the nonlinear gas film forces have a significant influence on the stability of rotor system and there are the rich nonlinear phenomena, such as the periodic, period-doubling, quasi-periodic, period-4 and chaotic motion, and so on. The proposed models and numerical results can provide a theoretical direction to the design of axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearing-rotor system.

Experiment and Simulations on Lubrication Performance of EMP Journal Bearing

In recent years, much attention has been devoted to the design and operation of bearings made of elastic metal plastic (EMP). The surface of the bearing bush is covered by a layer of polymer PTFE(polytetrafluoroethylene). The physical performances of the polymer are quite different from that of metal. It can reduce friction because of its lower surface energy, and it is more difficult for the fluid to be adhered. Consequently, the slip will exist at the oil-bush interface. The journal bearings made of this material are researched in this article. Through test, the existence of slip is proven and the equation of the slip velocity for the EMP journal bearing is established when shear stress up to a certain value. Thus, the classical Reynolds equation is modified. The lubrication mechanism is analyzed by some simulation results.

Effects of Dimensional Tolerances on the Friction Power Loss of Hydrodynamic Journal Bearing System

According to the dimensional tolerances on hydrodynamic journal bearing system, a nonlinear oil film force model was established,and the Reynolds' equation was solved by adopting finite difference method. In order to fulfill different dimensional tolerances in the system,adopting 2kfactor design and using the eccentricity ratio corresponding to the stability critical curve,the effects of the friction power loss brought by the dimensional tolerances of the dynamic viscosity,bearing width,bearing diameter and journal diameter were analyzed. The effect on dynamic characteristics of the hydrodynamic journal bearing system was quantitatively analyzed,and the nonlinear dynamic analysis, modeling and calculation methods were studied while considering the manufacturing tolerances. The results show that in contrast to the impacts of the tolerances in journal diameter,dynamic viscosity and bearing width,the bearing diameter tolerance would lead to the rise in the power loss, and the dimensional tolerances have different degrees of impacts on the journal bearing system. The friction power loss decreased as the eccentricity ratio increased, and when the eccentricity ratio was 0. 695 the power loss came to the minimum.The investigation would find the best solution and reduce energy consumption,then control varieties of nonlinear dynamical behavior effectively,and provide a theoretical basis for hydrodynamic journal bearing system in parameter design.

FLUID FLOW SEPARATION CHARACTER ON NOVEL HYBRID JOURNAL BEARING

The influence of the structure and running parameters of a novel spiral oil wedge hybrid journal bearing on the fluid flow trace is investigated. The governing equation of the flow trace of lubricant is set up, and the simulation is carried out by using finite difference method. The results show that the lubricant flow status and end leakage quantity are greatly influenced by spiral angle,and that the rotating speed has little influence on the flow status. With advisable geometry design, the separation of lubricant between different oil wedges can be obtained, which can decrease the temperature rise effectively.

Unified Coordinate System Model for Performance Calculation of Fix-pad Journal Bearing with Different Pad Preload

Traditional model for calculating performance parameters of a fix-pad journal bearing leads to heavy workload, complicated and changeable formulae as it requires deriving various geometric formulae with different bearing types such as circular journal bearing, dislocated bearing and elliptic bearing. Considering different pad preload ratios for non-standard bearing, traditional model not only becomes more complicated but also reduces scalability and promotion of the calculation programs. For the complexly case of traditional model while dealing with various fix-pad journal bearings, unified coordinate system model for performance calculation of fix-pad journal bearing is presented in the paper. A unified coordinate system with the bearing center at the origin is established, and the eccentricity ratio and attitude angle of axis relative to each pad are calculated through the coordinates of journal center and each pad center. Geometric description of fix-pad journal bearing is unified in this model, which can be used for both various standard bearing and non-standard bearing with different pad preload ratios. Validity of this model is verified with an elliptical bearing. Performance of a non-standard four-leaf bearing with different pad preload ratios is calculated based on this model. The calculation result shows that increasing preload ratio of the pad 1 and keeping that of the left three pads constant improves bearing capacity, stiffness and damping coefficients. This research presents a unified coordinate system model unifies performance calculation of fix-pad journal bearings and studied a non-standard four-leaf bearing with different pad preload ratios, the research conclusions provides new methods for performance calculation of fix-pad journal bearings.

Thermoelastohydrodynamic Behavior of a Journal Bearing with Turbulent Flow

Turbulence is an irregular fluid motion in which the various flow properties such as velocity and pressure show random variations with time and position.A number of authors proposed different solutions e.g.for pressure distribution,temperature prediction and Thermo-Hydrodynamic(THD)analyses.In a fluid film bearing,the pressure in the oil film satisfies the Reynolds equation with a variation in the thickness of the lubricating film.In the presented cases of fluid-structure interaction analyses,all important phenomena accompanying bearing operation are considered,e.g.lubricant flow,structure movements and their deformations as well as heat transfer in case of thrust bearing.In this paper,the authors have developed an empirical relationship to determine the effect of lubrication when considering thermoelastohydrodynamic(TEHD)lubrication with turbulent flow.The critical point of this work is to import the matrix data(the pressure and temperature fields...)from the fluid domain to the internal surface of the bearing with a precision of the mesh especially in the contact surface.The results are presented in the median plane as a function of the bearing angle.A parametric study deals with the influence of rotation speed and the type of turbulence model on the pressure,temperature,deformation and stress intensity fields.

STUDY ON PERFORMANCE OF COMPOSITE JOURNAL BEARING SEALED AND LUBRICATED WITH FERROFLUID

The theoretical computation model of the composite journal bearing sealed and lubricated with ferrofluid is established The oil film pressure distribution,temperature field and heat conduction equation of the bearing liner are jointly calculated The static and dynamic properties of the bearing under condition of different eccentricities and ratios of width to diameter are obtained and discussed The results show the feasibility of this type of bearing for smaller eccentricities and width to diameter ratios,and that the oil film temperature,which is more subject to be influenced by the rotating speed,is higher than that of the bearing with leakage flow The key problem of the further development and application of the bearing is to design more reasonable and effective types of seal structures