Steady Load-Carrying Capacity of Recessed Hydrodynamic Bearings

Abstract

Oil-film hydrodynamic bearings are one of the most common forms of bearing used in rotating machinery. Because of their effect on system unbalance response and stability, care has to be exercised in the design of machines running in hydrodynamic bearings—for example they cannot usually be used in machines operating at high rotational speeds when the steady load on the bearing is low. A novel form of hydrodynamic bearing which incorporates recesses in the bearing surface has been proposed by the authors which improves the dynamic characteristics; however, earlier work has not fully assessed the steady load characteristics of such bearings vis-à-vis conventional bearings for example. The aim of this paper is to present the results of experimental work on several designs of the proposed novel bearings, to assess the bearing's performance and to compare it with that of conventional bearings. The results of the work show that the steady load-carrying capacity is adversely affected by the inclusion of recesses in the bearing surface, but that this is only a marginal effect provided that the number of recesses and their geometry are selected with care.