ELASTOHYDRODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF MULTISTEP TEXTURED JOURNAL BEARINGS WITH GROOVE DEPTH VARIATIONS USING CFD–FSI
Abstract
Journal bearings are widely employed in numerous industrial machines such as compressors, pumps, turbines, and generators, primarily to support rotating shafts. Compared with other surface texturing geometries, multistep journal bearing represents a geometric modification of conventional designs and is increasingly adopted because of its simple configuration, low manufacturing cost, and ease of fabrication. The stepped profile also facilitates greater lubricant flow, thereby enhancing the bearing’s operational performance. Extensive research has been devoted to evaluating parameters such as pressure distribution, load-carrying capacity, frictional forces and elastic deformation to improve tribological characteristics of journal bearings. This work investigates the influence of groove geometry—specifically groove height and width on the performance of multistep journal bearings in order to develop an optimized configuration. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations coupled with fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis, including cavitation effects, were performed. The results reveal that increasing the number of steps reduces frictional forces, while the load-carrying capacity decreases slightly. For instance, at a groove width of 35°, the load-carrying capacity was 6.96 % lower than at 15°, yet the frictional performance improved by 14.5 %.
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