PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF A CONSTANT FLOW VALVE COMPENSATED MULTIPLE HOLE-ENTRY HYBRID FLEXIBLE JOURNAL BEARINGS

Abstract

The multiple hole-entry flexible journal bearing configurations with constant flow valve compensation have been theoretically studied to determine the effects of bearing shell flexibility on the bearing performance characteristic. Finite element method has been used to obtain solutions of 3-dimensional elasticity equations and Reynolds equation. The non-dimensional parameter Cd is defined to account for the flexibility of bearing shell. Bearing performance characteristics have been presented for wide range of representative values of deformation coefficient (Cd) and non-dimensional external load (Wo). The results indicate that the bearing performance characteristic are significantly affected by bearing shell flexibility, both for hydrostatic (Ω=0.0) and hybrid (Ω≠0.0) modes of operations.