3D Numerical study on the effect of shaft eccentricity on the tribological performance of lubricated sliding contact

Abstract

Recently, a growing interest is given to the wall slip and the artificial texturing for improving the performance of lubricated sliding contact. The use of wall slip, artificial texturing, and the combination of slip and texturing can be the effective approach to enhance the performance of the bearing. The present study examines the effect of shaft eccentricity ratio on the hydrodynamic journal bearing performance. 3D numerical modelling based on modified Reynolds equation is used to analyse the effect of texturing and the wall slip on the characteristics of a hydrodynamically lubricated sliding contact. The analysis results point out that with respect to the load support and the power loss of the bearing, the use of wall slip on smooth surface is the most excellent configuration compared to other patterns (i.e. slip-texturing, pure texturing and conventional patterns). It is also confirmed that the wedge effect due to the shaft eccentricity has a significant role in altering the lubricant behaviour. Thus, a particular care must be taken in choosing the pattern of lubricated sliding contact as well as the shaft eccentricity.