Title: Investigations on the effects of surface texture on the performance of a porous journal bearing operating with couple stress fluids

Authors: Nitin Sharma; Saurabh Kango; Rajesh Kumar Sharma; Sunil

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology-Hamirpur, H.P., 177005, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology-Hamirpur, H.P., 177005, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology-Hamirpur, H.P., 177005, India ' Department of Mathematics, National Institute of Technology-Hamirpur, H.P., 177005, India

Abstract: In the present work, the hydrodynamic lubrication of a porous journal bearing is investigated with considering the effects of surface texturing at three different locations on the bearing surface operated with couple stress fluids. Darcy's equation is used to account for the effects of porous region of the bearing. The Stokes constitutive equations used for taking couple stress effects into account and the sinusoidal wave texture equation for texture at different locations on the bearing surface are used for deriving modified Reynolds equation. Centre differencing approach of finite difference scheme is adopted for discretisation of governing equations. It has been found that couple stress fluids improved the bearing performance. Moreover, the texture imposed on the bearing surface gives significant effects. Three configurations (configurations 1, 2 and 3) have been considered in the present work at three different locations and bearing performance characteristics have been calculated. The results revealed that the texturing improved the bearing performance in case of configuration 2 in comparison to two other locations (configurations 1 and 3).

Keywords: hydrodynamic lubrication; porous journal bearings; surface texturing; couple stress fluids; sinusoidal wave; surface texture; bearing performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSURFSE.2014.065817

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering, 2014 Vol.8 No.4, pp.392 - 407

Received: 08 Mar 2013
Accepted: 29 Oct 2013
Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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