An Algorithm for Starved Lubricated Journal Bearings With Optionally Locked Lube Oil Feed Grooves

Starved lubrication occurs intentionally or unconsciously in many journal bearing applications. However, the determination of its concrete distribution in a journal bearing is rather complex as the different lube oil feed grooves interact with each other due to their connection by the lubricant flow along the pad surfaces and the periodic geometric property of the entire bearing. A robust numerical procedure to determine the lube oil distribution between the different feed grooves in a starved lubricated fixed-pad journal bearing is presented as an extension to Elrod's cavitation algorithm. The enhanced algorithm partly integrates flow rate boundary conditions into the linear system of equations for the solution of Reynolds equation and the transport equation. A strategy to couple these flow rate boundary conditions with the iterative procedure to determine the binary cavitation index is proposed. In particular, the algorithm enables an appropriate modeling of lube oil grooves with locked oil supply including the consideration of groove-specific dissipation or design features like bleed notches. The novel algorithm is implemented as a submodule of a thermo-elasto-hydrodynamic bearing code and validated with test data for a high-speed two-lobe bearing with embedded arc. Furthermore, a comprehensive parametric study provides an insight on the robustness of the implemented numeric procedure. Results, current limitations, and possible extensions to the algorithm are discussed.