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HD Lubrication of Journal Bearings by Pseudo-

Plastic Lubricants

ARTICLE OCTOBER 2012

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Juliana G. Javorova
University of Chemical Technology and Met
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 Tribological Journal BULTRIB, Vol. , 2013
Papers from the International Conference BULTRIB '12
October 18-20, 2012, Sofia
Society of Bulgarian Tribologists

HD LUBRICATION OF JOURNAL BEARINGS BY

PSEUDO-PLASTIC LUBRICANTS

Juliana JAVOROVA, Alexandru RADULESCU, Rabi LOVCHALIEVA,

Nikolai NIKOLOV, Paulina KOSTOVA

Abstract: A numerical study of the performance of a steady state loaded finite journal bearing
lubricated with pseudo-plastic fluid is presented. The analysis is extended to a bearing with thin elastic
layer on the shaft and its radial distortions are taken into consideration.The modified Reynolds
equation introducing a nonlinear factor by Wada and Hayashi is worked out.The numerical solution
demonstrates effects of non-Newtonian properties of pseudo-plastic fluid on the journal bearing
performance.
Key Words: pseudo-plastic lubricants, elastohydrodynamic (EHD) lubrication

1. INTRODUCTION

In recent years HD lubricated bearings have been used under ever more severe conditions of
high speed and heavy loads. Under light load and high speed the air is used as a lubricant because if
the small viscous resistance. On the other hand, under heavy load and high speed, oils containing
additives are used.
The viscosity of lubricating oils decreases with an increase of temperature. Present day
lubricating oils contain a large quantity of high molecular-weight polymers as the viscosity index
improver in order to prevent viscosity variation with temperature change. It is known that such
polymer-thickened oils have the same behavior as pseudo-plastic fluids. Though favorable results of
investigation on hydrodynamic lubrication for non-Newtonian fluids of this type are important, virtually
no progress has been made due to difficulties involved in analytical and experimental treatments.
There are some papers which refer to performance characteristics of bearings lubricated by
pseudo-plastic fluids [1-5, 8, 10, etc]. Mainly the goal of
these works is to derive the modified Reynolds equation
for such kind of lubricants and to receive analytical
solution of it. Only few numbers of published papers are
in the field of behaviour of finite length journal bearings.
Along with that it is important to consider in the
analysis and additional major factors affecting the HD
journal bearing performance like elastic deformation of
contact surfaces, which cause a reduction in pressure,
generated in the oil film [6, 7, 9, etc.] With regard to all
mentioned, the purpose of the present work is to study
the effect of interaction of the non-Newtonian properties
of pseudo-plastic lubricant and shafts liner elastic
deformation on the performance (film forces,
Sommerfeld number, attitude angle and frictional force)
of HD journal bearings.
In the current study the problem is investigated for Fig.1 Journal bearing with a
a non-Newtonian lubricant under isothermal and soft layer on the shaft
isoviscous conditions. The bearings shaft is covered
with a thin resilient layer, whose radial displacements are of the same order of magnitude as the film
thickness (Fig. 1). The effect of pseudo-plastic kind of the lubricant is taken into account by modified
Reynolds equation governing the film pressure.

248
2. ELASTOHYDRODYNAMIC MODEL OF LUBRICATION

2.1. Flow characteristics and modified Reynolds equation

It is well known that lubricating oils, with viscosity index improver added, exhibit the same
characteristics as pseudo-plastic fluids. In that case the relationship between the shear stress and
shear rate may be approximated by the following equation:
d
k 3 (1)
dt
If the values of do not vary, the nonlinearity of the flow curve increases with the value of the
coefficient of pseudo-plasticity k. In pseudo-plastic non-Newtonian fluids, k 0 , while in Newtonian
fluids k 0 .
The Reynolds equation, which governs the pressure distribution, is obtained from the integral form of
continuity equation. For steady loaded finite journal bearing under laminar conditions the modified
Reynolds equation for pseudo-plastic fluids can be written as [3]:
1 h p h5 p 1 h p h5 p r h
3 3 3 3

(2)
12 x
x 80 x 12 z
z 80 z
2 x
where is nonlinear factor, which is given as

u r
2 2

k k . (3)
C C
It is known, that for Newtonian fluids k 0 and from Eqn (2) can be obtaining the classical Reynolds
equation. The above equation is more general, as it includes the case of Newtonian fluids.

Each term of the right-hand side of Eqn (2) indicates, respectively, the action of wedge, stretch or
squeeze. In hydrodynamically lubricated bearings using pseudo-plastic fluids, the film pressure is
developed by the same three terms as are used for Newtonian fluids.

By applying the above mentioned modified Reynolds equation to journal bearings, the bearing
performance can be obtained. In consideration of the dimensionless expressions mentioned above the
modified Reynolds equation for a steady load takes the following nondimensional form:

H 3 H 5 H 3 H 5 1 H
3
2
3

2
(4)
12 80 z1 12 z1 80 z1 2

Nomenclature

c Radial clearance , [m] x, y, z Orthogonal Cartesian coordinates

-1
Cij Oil film damping coefficients u, v, w Velocity components, [m.s ]
d Shaft liner thickness, [m] W Load-carrying capacity, [N]
E Young's modulus, [Pa] W Dimensionless load-carrying capacity
Eccentricity, [m] W c / r / 6rL
2
e
h Film thickness, [m] 2r / L Diameter to length ratio

H Dimensionless film thickness h / c c/r Clearance ratio

k Coefficient of pseudo-plasticity Attitude angle, [rad]

L Bearing axial length, [m] e/c Eccentricity ratio
m Mass of rotor per bearing, [kg] x/r Circumferential coordinate

p Hydrodynamic pressure, [Pa] Liner surface points radial displacement, [m]

r Shaft liner outer radius, [m] Kinematical viscosity of the lubricant, [m /s]
2

Re Global Reynolds number rc / Dynamic viscosity of the lubricant, [Pa.s]

S Sommerfeld number Poisson's ratio
Shear stress
249 Dimensionless pressure p. c / r / 6
2

Nonlinear factor Shaft angular velocity, [s ]

-1
2.2. Oil-film thickness equation

The film shape in the journal bearing can be evaluated from the following equation, which
describes the film geometry:
h ( x,z ) c ecos . (5)
In current analysis is used an approach that aims to superimpose the deformation of the layer on
the shaft, caused by hydrodynamic pressure generated onto the oil film thickness. By this way the film
thickness is modified to take into account the respective elastic deformations, which are represented
by the last term of above equation.
For numerical solution the above equation is modified to:
H 1 cos . (6)
Determination of the liners surface points radial displacements is carried out in accordance with
the Vlassov three-dimensional model of elastic foundation for the case of thin layer [6]:
6 r 2 1 2 1 d
2

(7)
E 1
2
c3

2.3. Load-carrying capacity and attitude angle

Integration of the dimensionless pressure over the bearing area gives the non-dimensional load-
carrying capacity, calculated by:
2
W W12 W22 W. (8)
6 rL
where W1 and W2 are the components along and perpendicular to the line of centers and they
represent respectively as:
1 2 1 2
W1 cos d dz 1 ; W2 sin d dz
1 , (9)
1 0 1 0

Consequently, the attitude angle is calculated by

tan1 W2 W1 (10)
and the Sommerfeld number may be defined as [13]
W2
S 6W (11)
rL
Integrating the shear stress xy around the journal surface, the dimensionless friction force acting
on the journal can be derived; subsequently the friction coefficient can be calculated and written as
1 2
u F
F ddz ; CF . (12)
0 0
y1 y1 H
W

3. NUMERICAL SOLUTION AND RESULTS

3.1. Numerical solution

EHD problem presupposes simultaneous solution of the modified Reynolds equation for pseudo-
plastic fluids (4), film thickness equation (6) and elasticity equation (7).
The dimensionless modified Reynolds equation is solved numerically using the finite difference
method with application of an over-relaxation procedure in order to improve the convergence rate.
For pressure distribution the Reynolds boundary conditions were used and because of which the
negative pressure values are immediately put to zero. The film domain is divided by the grid spacing.
Various mesh sizes have been tried and a mesh with 118 intervals in the circumferential direction and
30 intervals across the bearing width is used. This size gives a rapid rate of convergence and
agreeable computer working time. It was observed that increasing of the number of grid points almost
does not affect the results. The convergence criterion adopted for pressure is
1 new 1.10
old
7
.

250
3.2. Results and discussion

The present analysis showed that the effect of non-Newtonian properties of pseudo-plastic
lubricant can be presented by nonlinear factor while from another side the effect of deformability of
the shafts layer - by parameters and E. Then, considering the mathematical model, the governing
parameters are eccentricity ratio , diameter to length ratio , and elastic layer parameters , E.
In the computations are used the following main operating conditions, which represent the investigated
effects: for Newtonian fluid 0 ; for pseudo-plastic fluid - 0,1 , 1 while the elasticity
parameters are: E 2.1011 [Pa], 0, 25 (rigid case); E 7,33.107 [Pa], 0, 4 (soft case). The
results were obtained for diameter to length ratio equal to 1,0 whereas the eccentricity ratio was
varied from 0,1 to 0,9.
The effect of non-Newtonian lubricants properties and respectively deformability of the shafts
liner on the pressure profile by the bearings line of centers is presented on Figures 2.
It has been observed that the maximum pressure values reduce with the values of the nonlinear
factor and larger deformability values. It is clear from the figure that the pressure in pseudo-plastic
fluids is smaller as compared with Newtonian fluids. When the nonlinear factor approaches zero, the
pressure distribution represents the pure EHD lubrication case and if deformations are ignored the
lubrication is pure hydrodynamically.

Fig. 2 Distribution of pressure Fig. 3 Load carrying capacity

Fig. 4 Attitude angle vs eccentricity ratio Fig. 5 Dimensionless frictional force

Analogical as the influence on HD pressure, the dimensionless load-carrying capacity becomes

smaller at pseudo-plastic fluids than at Newtonian oils (for the same eccentricity ratio), as it is shown
on Figure 3, where the presented results refer to the soft case. Obviously, similar tendencies must be
waiting and for Sommerfeld number values.
251
 Figure 4 shows the effect of turbulence on attitude angles. The attidude angle at pseudo-plastic
oils is larger than that Newtonian lubricants. Furtermore, this tendency can be recognized more clear
at the middle and biggger eccentricity ratios; especially at eccentricities between 0.3 and 0.9.
The influence of non-linear factorn of pseudo-plastic fluid on the dimensionless frictional force is
presented on Figure 5. For all of the eccentricity ratios the frictional force is remarkably smaller than
that for Newtonian fluid. The same effect can be expected and on the friction coefficient.

4. CONCLUSION

In the present paper was studied the effect of interaction of the non-Newtonian properties of
pseudo-plastic lubricants and shafts liner elastic deformation on the dynamic performance of HD
journal bearings.
On the base of modified Reynolds equation of pseudo-plastic fluids are calculated pressure
distribution, film thickness and elastic distortions of the surface points. By this way performance
characteristics of the journal bearing are founded and the main conclusions can be written as follows:
The maximum values of hydrodynamic pressure apparent decreases below that of Newtonian fluids.
The load carrying capacity, Sommerfeld number and frictional force also reduced as the effect on
them is more evident at high eccentricities. These tendencies become more pronounced at higher
values of nonlinear factor.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank for the financial support of this project, provided by Research and
Development Sector at UCTM - Sofia, Bulgaria and CEEPUS Project CIII-BG-0703-02-1314 Modern
Trends in Education and Research on Mechanical Systems - Bridging Reliability,Quality and
Tribology.

REFERENCE

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grade fluid, Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations, Vol. 27, issue 5, 2011, p. 1231-1241.
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Transactions, Volume 33, Issue 3, 1990, pp. 384-394.
3. Hayashi H., Wada S., Hydrodynamic lubrication of journal bearings by pseudo-plastic fluids. Part 3:
Theoretical analysis considering effects of correlation, Bull JSME, Vol. 17, 1974, pp. 967-974.
4. Hsu Y.C., Saibel E., Sliding bearing performance with a non-Newtonian lubricant, ASLE Trans., Vol.
8, 1965, pp. 191-194.
5. Hsu Y.C., Non-Newtonian flow in infinite length full journal bearings, ASME Tr., Vol.89, 1967, p 329.
6. Javorova J.G., Stanulov K.G., Alexandrov V.A., Static and dynamic performance in EHD journal
bearings in turbulent flow, Proc. Proc. Int. Sci. Conf. Power ransmissions09, 1-2 October 2009,
Chalkidiki - Greece, 2009, pp. 453-460.
7. Javorova J.G., Basic bearing characteristics of HD journal bearing in the conditions of elastic
contact, Proc. of Int. Conf. RaDMI03, Serbia, Herceg Novi, 2003, pp.731-737.
8. Ng C.W., Saibel E., Nonlinear Viscosity Effects in Slider Bearing Lubrication, ASME Trans., Vol. 84,
1962, pp. 192-195.
9. Osman T.A., Effect of lubricant non-Newtonian behaviour and elastic deformation on the dynamic
performance of finite journal plastic bearings, Tribology Letters, Vol. 17, 1, 2004, pp. 31-40.
10. Rajalingham C., Prabhu B.S., Rao B.V.A., Steady state performance of a hydrodynamic journal
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CORRESPONDENCE

Assoc. Prof. PhD Eng. Juliana JAVOROVA Students: Rabi LOVCHALIEVA,

University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy Nikolai NIKOLOV,
8 Kliment Ohridski Blvd. Paulina KOSTOVA
1756 Sofia, Bulgaria
e-mail: july@uctm.edu, julianata1@abv.bg UCTM, Sofia, Bulgaria

Assoc. Prof. PhD Eng. Alexandru RADULESCU

POLITEHNICA University, Bucharest, Romania
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics

252