| Abstract: | The thermohydrodynamic characteristics of journal bearings with two axial grooves are investigated by means of computational fluid dynamics technique. The equations governing the problem are those of continuity, momentum and energy, which are discretised using hybrid scheme and solved simultaneously employing the SIMPLE algorithm. The novelty of the present model resides mainly in the fact that it was able to accurately predict the temperature profile of twin groove plain hydrodynamic journal bearings to a degree that, to the authors' knowledge, has not been obtained so far, particularly in the inactive portion of the bearing and in the vicinity of grooves. This has been accomplished by performing a computational fluid dynamics analysis in which no relevant simplifications have been made to the governing equations along with the use of a detailed cavitation algorithm. This allowed to perform a reliable assessment of the influence of lubricant feeding conditions and to confirm their relevance for bearing design. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
