An investigation of the relationship between pressure field and periodic bearing structure

In recent years, non-circular journal bearings are widely used in industry on account of their better stability, simplicity, efficiency and low cost. In this paper, an elliptical bearing neglecting the journal eccentricity is investigated. The results show that the oil-film thickness can always be expanded into a Fourier series. And the basis function of the series is just related to the total amount of bearing lobes. Moreover, by substituting the expansion of pressure into the Reynolds equation, the governing equations satisfied by the pressure components can be obtained. The numerical results show that the profile of each pressure component exhibits the same periodic characteristics as the bearing structure. And the number of its peaks is just equal to the order of the corresponding component of oil-film thickness. Generally, the study further reveals the relationship between the pressure field and periodic bearing structure.