Mechanical and thermal deformations effects on plain journal bearing with isoviscous boundary condition based on CFD and FSI methods

This study investigates the performance of plain journal bearings by considering the effects of cavitation and elastic deformation. Numerical analysis of plain journal bearings was performed using the three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics - fluid-structure interaction (CFD-FSI) method. Lubricant viscosity was modeled using the isoviscous boundary condition. Furthermore, the effects of mechanical and thermal loads of plain journal bearings with different eccentricity ratios were numerically investigated. This study indicates that the eccentricity ratio had more significant effects than mechanical and thermal loads on the lubrication performance of the plain journal bearing. In addition, it was found that the elastic deformation that occurred in the housing due to mechanical and thermal loads had extremely significant effects when compared to the elastic deformation caused by mechanical load only.