Finite Element Analysis of Turbulent Lubricated Hydrostatic Journal Bearings for Static and Dynamic Conditions

Abstract

Hydrostatic journal bearings have been employed in several applications where the lubricant is a working fluid with low viscosity. The resulting turbulent flow can be analyzed by considering three major pressure drops: pressure drop across the orifice restrictor, pressure drop over the pocket edges, and pressure drop across the bearing lands. This paper presents a finite element analysis of bearings in the above category. The bearings here have axial grooves between the pockets and either one or two pockets per pad. Both static and dynamic bearing properties are calculated for example bearings.