Simulation of thermo-hydrodynamic behavior of journal bearings, lubricating with commercial oils of different performance

Abstract This paper tries to display complete thermo-hydrodynamic research in journal bearings, investigating the growing pressure and temperature rise inside the bearing during operation. The narrow and infinitely long bearings are extensively investigated including analytical solutions either for plain journal bearing, or journal bearing with an axial groove. In narrow bearing approximation, the temperature distribution inside the bearing is also demonstrated. As concerns the finite bearing, it is simulated using the Computational Fluid Dynamis (CFD) algorithm. It is worth noting that the heating effects that are included in this simulation assuming variable viscosity, as well as the bearing, are examined both with industrial lubricants and environmentally friendly oils. One of the most major findings is that, concerning the AWS-100, results in higher temperature values in all examined cases and a more variable temperature distribution at the oil film-bush interface, especially under the assumption of adiabatic bearing. Furthermore, the use of ISO VG 32 leads to a more uniform temperature distribution in the circumferential direction at the film-bush interface.