Angular-Compliant Hydrodynamic Bearing Performance Under Dynamic Loads

The study is focused on a dynamically loaded composite bearing, consisting of a hydrodynamic journal bearing inside the internal race of a rolling-element bearing. In this combination, the hydrodynamic bearing has an angular-compliant sleeve with a restricted freedom of rotation around its axis. Under static loads, the improvement is primarily in a significant reduction of friction and wear during the starting and stopping. Under periodical loads, our analysis shows that the performance depends on two dimensionless design parameters. Below particular critical values of these parameters, the results show a considerable improvement, demonstrated by a reduction of the maximum eccentricity. However, above the critical values, the bearing becomes unstable. These results indicate the significance of incorporating this computer assisted computation for each design.