Experimental Analysis of Oil Film Pressure and Temperature on EN31 Alloy Steel Journal Bearing

The design and analysis of hydrodynamic journal bearings has a great attention to the engineers. Hydrodynamic lubrication is the most common method of lubrication of journal bearing. Emphasis has been given to design those bearings so as to avoid boundary lubrication between the bearing surfaces. To design these elements, the characteristics like load-carrying capacity, maximum pressure, eccentricity, lubricant viscosity and so on are to be predicted accurately. These parameters can be determined if the pressure within the clearance space between contact surfaces is known. In this method as the journal rotates, it takes a slightly eccentric position relative to the bearing. The eccentric rotation of the journal in the bearing acts somewhat like a rotary pump and generates a relatively high hydrodynamic pressure in the converging zone. The hydrodynamic pressure for a properly designed bearing is responsible for supporting the journal without allowing it to come in contact with bearing. This study deals with the development of suitable laboratory test rig, which can be helpful in determining the load capacity, pressure distribution of journal bearing at different speed, location of maximum film pressure and effect of lubricants on bearing performance. This paper deals with an experimental study of oil film pressure and temperature responses for journal parameters on EN31 alloy steel journal. The study on journal bearing comes under engineering tribology and as known that small improvement in the field of Tribology leads to better usage of energy