A steady-state model of a conventional floating ring bearing is presented, specifically, to assess the feasibility of its use in the power generating industry. It necessitates the numerical solution of the Reynolds and energy equations for both inner and outer lubricant films. Oil recirculation and heat and mass transfer between the films are included. For the application considered, the oil temperatures and eccentricity ratios encountered are not excessive.

A steady-state analysis based on the short bearing approximation is presented for the cylindrical-spherical floating ring bearing, where the inner surface of the ring is cylindrical whilst the outer is spherical. Performance characteristics are compared with Li and Rohde’s theoretical work on the conventional cylindrical-cylindrical bearing. Excellent agreement is obtained, especially for (L/D) = 0.5. The present analysis of both the inner and outer lubricant films, the thickness of the latter varying axially, takes account of striated flow downstream of cavitation inception. The importance of this is demonstrated when considering power loss prediction.