Coupled effects of surface texture and temperature-induced viscosity changes on journal bearing performance

Surface texturing consists of introducingwell-defined, intentional cavities on bearing surfaces, either on the housing or on the rotating shaft. Forsuch configurations, it iswell established in the literature that mass-conserving cavitation models are essential for accurately describing cavitation phenomena. However, the influence of thermal effects on the performance of textured bearingsis often overlooked. Thiswork addressesthis gap by proposing a mass-conserving two-phase cavitation model that incorporates global thermal effectsto assessthe impact ofsurface texturing on loadcarrying capacity, friction and temperature in hydrodynamic journal bearings. The pressure predictions are validated against full Navier-StokesCFD simulations,while the friction and thermal responses are validated using experimental data for both smooth and textured bearings. The results demonstrate that friction-induced temperature rises modify bearing performance in the presence of textures, confirming that thermal effects are a critical factor and that conventional isothermal assumptions may be misleading forthe accurate analysis and design of textured journal bearings. Fil: Palavecino, Jorge Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Centro de Investigaciones en Métodos Computacionales. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Centro de Investigaciones en Métodos Computacionales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco"; Argentina Fil: Profito, Francisco J.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasil