No abstract

In this study, we observe that there are two threshold speeds (stability threshold speed and second threshold speed) for the long journal bearing, which is different for the short bearing. When the rotating speed is below the stability threshold speed, the stability boundary nearly coincides with the clearance circle, and the journal center gradually returns to the equilibrium point after being released at an initial point. If the rotating speed is between the stability threshold speed and the second threshold speed, after being released at an initial point, the journal center converges to a contour containing the equilibrium point. In this situation, for a higher rotating speed, the corresponding contour is also larger. When the rotating speed exceeds the second threshold speed, the journal gradually moves towards the bearing surface after being released at an initial point.

In the previous studies on the hydrostatic thrust bearing, the differences between the theoretical results and experimental results are obvious when the inertia parameter S and the ratio of supply hole radius to bearing radius r0/ R become large enough. To explain the differences, in this study, the inertia effect on the region of supply hole is considered in discussing the static characteristics of hydrostatic thrust bearing, and then new expressions of pressure, load capacity, and flow rate are given. For the continuous parallel bearing, the results of this study agree well with experiments, thus there is no need for the extra modified inertia theory. For the step bearing with a large inertia parameter (e.g., S = 2), the results of this study agree with experiments on the recess region, and are closer to the experimental results than those of old method on the region of bearing land. So when the inertia parameter S and the ratio of supply hole radius to bearing radius r0/ R are large enough, the inertia effect on the region of supply hole cannot be ignored in discussing the static characteristics of hydrostatic thrust bearing.

A new derivation considering the non-linear terms has been proposed to calculate stiffness and damping coefficients for short hydrodynamic journal bearings lubricated with pseudo-plastic fluids. The proposed method has relaxed the constraint of small perturbation method applicable to only small values of non-Newtonian factor α. An analytical solution is also given. The non-linear Reynolds equation is solved with a more reasonable boundary condition ∂p*/∂z* = 0 at the location of z*=0 while the analytical pressure distribution is obtained by seven-point Gauss-Legendre integral formula. When the non-dimensional non-Newtonian factor α is small, the stiffness and damping coefficients of computed by the proposed method can agree well with those from small perturbation method, which could verify the proposed derivation. As for large non-dimensional non-Newtonian factor α, the stiffness coefficients $K_{XX}^*$ , $K_{XY}^*$ and $K_{YX}^*$ as well as the damping coefficients $C_{XX}^*$ , $C_{XY}^*$ and $C_{YX}^*$ decrease with the increasing of non-dimensional non-Newtonian factor α. The significance of the derivation is that it can relax the constraint of small α and simplify the computation process.