A Numerical Investigation Of The Performance Analysis Of An Electrorheological Hydrostatic Journal Bearing

This work describes a theoretical study concerning the performance characteristics of a electrorheological hydrostatic journal bearing. The hydrostatic journal bearing consists of four hydrostatic bearing flat pads fed by capillary restrictors. A negative electrorheological (NER) fluid is a Newtonian fluid with a viscosity which decreases when an electric field is applied, and which can restore its property when the field is removed. A reversible change in viscosity occurs in milliseconds with application of an electric field. Therefore, these fluids are suitable for the real-time control of vibration and vibration damping. A linear modeling was performed in order to study the performance characteristics of a capillary compensated four-pad hydrostatic journal bearing in order to investigate the effect of negative electrorheological fluids and static eccentricity ratio on carrying load capacity, flow, and the dynamic characteristics (stiffness and damping) of an electrorheological hydrostatic journal bearing. An electrorheological fluid consists of a suspension of micron-sized particles dispersed in a dielectric liquid. The discussion of results includes some thoughts on future trends. The results presented in this work are expected to be quite useful to the bearing designers.