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Direct Observation of Cavitation Phenomenon and Hydrodynamic Lubrication Analysis of Textured Surfaces

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Abstract

When a textured ring rotates relatively against the other texture-free ring in a parallel thrust bearing, cavitation of liquid lubricant may occur in the divergent zones of the dimples or grooves on the textured surface due to local pressure drops. The Reynolds and Jakobsson–Floberg–Olsson (JFO) models are two widely used cavitation models in hydrodynamic lubrication theory, where the former lacks mass conservation while the latter enforces it. In order to investigate the applicability of the two models to the hydrodynamic lubrication analysis of parallel thrust bearings with surface textures, comparison between experiment and simulation results has been carried out on parallel thrust bearings in terms of cavitation zone morphology in a groove, friction coefficient, and bearing clearance. The results have shown that the observed cavitation morphology in steady state is more similar to the prediction from the JFO model than that from the Reynolds model.

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Abbreviations

F :

Cavitation index

F f :

Friction force (N)

f c :

Friction coefficient

h :

Local film thickness (m)

h d :

Groove depth (m)

\( \bar{h} \) :

Dimensionless local film thickness = h/h d

h 0 :

Bearing clearance (m)

h 01, h 02 :

Guess of bearing clearance (m)

h 0g :

Average of h 01 and h 02 (m)

N :

Number of grooves

P :

Local pressure (Pa)

P c :

Cavitation pressure (Pa)

P ref :

Characteristic reference pressure (Pa)

\( \bar{P} \) :

Dimensionless local pressure = P/P 0

P 0 :

Ambient pressure (Pa)

p :

Nominal mean contact pressure = W/(r 2o  − r 2i )/π (Pa)

r :

Radial coordinate in a polar coordinate system (m)

r i, r o :

The inner and outer radii of the textured ring (m)

\( \bar{r} \) :

Dimensionless radial coordinate = r/r i

W :

Measured normal load (N)

W g :

Calculated normal load (N)

x, y :

Coordinates in a Cartesian coordinate system (m)

\( \bar{x},\bar{y} \) :

Dimensionless coordinates, \( \bar{x} = x/r_{i} ,\bar{y} = y/r_{\text{i}} \)

α :

Groove area ratio = ∆θ g/θ c

ϕ :

Dimensionless dependent variable

η :

Dynamic viscosity of lubricant (Pa s)

λ Rey, λ JFO :

Dimensionless parameters: \( \lambda_{\text{Rey}} = 6\eta \omega r_{i}^{2} /P_{0} /h_{d}^{2} ,\lambda_{\text{JFO}} = 6\eta \omega r_{i}^{2} /\left( {P_{\text{ref}} - P_{\text{c}} } \right)/h_{\text{d}}^{2} \)

θ :

Angular coordinate in a polar coordinate system (rad)

θ c :

Angle of a periodic sector (rad)

∆θ g :

Angle of the groove in a periodic sector (rad)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3): in the liquid film region, ρ = ρ c; in the cavitation region, ρ is the average density of the two-phase fluid of liquid and gas

ρ c :

Lubricant density at the cavitation pressure (kg/m3)

τ :

Viscous shear stress (Pa)

ω :

Angular velocity (rad/s)

i :

Index for the node number in the radial direction

j :

Index for the node number in the angular direction

k :

Iterative index

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant Nos. 50823003 and 51021064) and the National Basic Resaerch Program of China with the grant No. 2012CB934101.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Bei**g, 100084, China

    **yu Zhang & Yonggang Meng

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  1. **yu Zhang
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  2. Yonggang Meng
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Correspondence to Yonggang Meng.

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Zhang, J., Meng, Y. Direct Observation of Cavitation Phenomenon and Hydrodynamic Lubrication Analysis of Textured Surfaces. Tribol Lett 46, 147–158 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-012-9935-6

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