Misalignment and Surface Irregularities Effect in MR Fluid Journal Bearing

Misalignment is a major issue to hampers the satisfactory operation of the journal bearing system. Perfect alignment of the journal bearing system is rather difficult to achieve due to various reasons. In actual reality, there is always some amount of misalignment that exists. In recent times, smart lubricants have come up in a big way application concerning fluid film journal bearings. The performance of fluid film bearings gets greatly affected due to misaligned journal conditions and bearing surface irregularities. The present study deals with magnetorheological (MR) lubricant behavior fluid in a hybrid slot-entry journal bearing system (SEJBs) oper-ating under misaligned journal conditions with bearing surface irregularities. The numerically simulated result reveals that due to journal misalignment conditions, the fluid film thickness is reduced, whereas, the value of fluid film damping coefficient and frictional torque gets increased. The mutual effect of bearing surface irreg-ularities and MR lubricant enhances the value of minimum fluid film thickness thereby reducing the chances of metal to metal contact. Further, the combined influence of MR lubricant and surface irregularities increases the damping capabilities of bearing system which helps to damp out the oscillating vibration and large excitation under dynamic circumstances.

Automated summary

Misalignment affects the operation of the journal bearing system, and smart lubricants can enhance the performance of fluid film bearings. The study finds that journal misalignment reduces the fluid film thickness, increases the fluid film damping coefficient, and frictional torque.