The Prediction of Liquid Film Journal Bearing Performance with a Consideration of Lubricant Film Reformation: Part 2: Experimental Results

Analyses and design data for plain journal bearings rarely take into account the phenomenon of film reformation. The consideration of the re-establishment of the lubricant film after the cavitation region is difficult in a number of ways. The importance of allowing for reformation is, however, being increasingly recognized. This is particularly true as regards the satisfactory prediction of lubricant flowrate and the thermal operating characteristics of a bearing. The authors have previously implemented a cavitation algorithm to enable the cavitation region in a plain journal bearing to be located automatically and efficiently in a computer analysis. In Part I of the present paper theoretical results have been presented for the case of a plain bearing with a square-ended, axial groove located at the position of maximum film thickness. The second part of the paper gives details of an experimental investigation designed to establish the validity of the analysis.