Abstract
A new bearing concept, the wave journal bearing, has been developed to improve the static and dynamic performances of an air-lubricated hydrodynamic journal bearing. This concept features waves on bearing surface. In this study, we present the solution of the compressible Reynolds equation valid for arbitrary Knudsen numbers. Straight wave journal bearing is investigated numerically. The performances of straight wave bearing are compared to the plain journal bearing over relatively wide range of bearing number and eccentricity. The wave journal bearing offers better stability than the plain journal bearing under all bearing numbers covered in this study. The bearing load and stability characteristics are dependent on the geometric parameters such as the amplitude and the starting point of the wave relative to the applied load. Under the condition of Knudsen number＞0.01, we can not ignore the effect of slip for Journal bearing.
