Thermohydrodynamic lubrication analysis on equilibrium position and dynamic coefficient of journal bearing

The finite element method (FEM) is introduced to calculate the oil film pressure and temperature distribution of a journal bearing. The perturbation is performed directly on the finite element equation. Consequently, the Jacobian matrices of the oil film forces are concisely obtained. The equilibrium position of the bearing with a given static load is found by the Newton-Raphson method. As byproducts, dynamic coefficients are obtained simultaneously without any extra computing time. From the numerical results, it is concluded that the effects of film temperature on stiffness coefficients are bigger than those on damping coefficients. With the increase of rotational speed, the load capacity and the stiffness coefficients of the journal bearing are increased when the eccentricity is small, while decreased when the eccentricity is big.