A Computational Method for the Thermohydrodynamic Performance of Journal Bearings Using a Mixed FEM-FVM-BEM Scheme

摘要

In hydrodynamic lubrication the thermal behaviour is very important since a lot of journal bearings designed for machinery usually work under severe operating conditions. The coupled model for pressure and temperature presented here was carried out on a plain journal bearing including bush and shaft thermal exchange with the external environment. The main innovative goals concern the numerical solution of the global problem. So, a combination of different space approximations jointly with upwind techniques for convection and algorithms for nonlinearities in transient problems are developed. Precisely, a finite element method for the hydrodynamic Reynolds equation with a cavitation model of Elrod-Adams is applied. The energy equation in the lubricating film is solved by a second order cell-vertex volume method and the bushing temperature distribution is computed by using a P1 boundary element - dual reciprocity method.