Hydrodynamic Bearing Lubricated with Magnetic Fluids

This article summarizes the work carried out in the development of hydrodynamic lubricated journal bearings with magnetic fluids. Two different fluids have been analyzed: one is the ferrofluid from FERROTEC APG s10n and the other is the magnetorheological (MR) fluid from LORD Corp., MRF122-2ED. Theoretical analysis has been carried out with numerical solutions of Reynolds equation, based on apparent viscosity modulation for ferrofluid and Bingham model for MR fluid. To validate this model, one test bench has been designed, manufactured, and set up, where preliminary results showed in this article demonstrate that magnetic fluids can be used to develop active journal bearings.