Elastohydrodynamic studies of circular journal bearings with non-Newtonian lubricants

A computer-aided study is presented for the static and dynamic performance characteristics of a hydrodynamic journal bearing with a non-Newtonian lubricant. The Navier-Stokes equations in cylindrical coordinates representing the flow field in the clearance space of a journal bearing using Newtonian fluids have been solved by finite element method using Galerkin's technique; the non-Newtonian effect is introduced by modifying the viscosity term for the model in each iteration. Deformation of the bearing shell is obtained by solving the three-dimensional elasticity equations. Using a suitable iterative solution procedure, the converged solutions for the lubricant flow and elastic deformation fields are obtained.