Elastohydrodynamically Lubricated Ball Bearings with Couple-Stress Fluids,Part II: Dynamic Analysis and Application

Stiffness and damping coefficients of isothermal elastohydrodynamically lubricated point-contact problems are evaluated numerically with couple-stress fluids. A set of equations under steady-state and dynamic conditions is derived from the modified Reynolds equation using a linearized perturbation method. This paper is the second part of the present study; the modified Reynolds equation derived from the Stokes micro-continuum theory is used in the previous article. Dynamic pressures are found after solving the set of perturbed equations using the previously obtained steady-state pressure from the modified Reynolds equation. The stiffness and damping coefficients of the film are determined using the dynamic pressures. Then the overall stiffness and damping matrices of the ball bearing are obtained from load distribution, coordinate transformation, and compatibility relations. The bearing coefficients are introduced into a rotor system to simulate the response. It has been observed that the influence of couple-stress fluids on the dynamics of a rotor supported on lubricated ball bearings is marginal; hence, Newtonian theory can be used instead for simplicity. However, with increasing content of polymer additives in lubricant, for an accurate analysis the effect of couple stresses in a fluid should not be neglected.