Effects of severe operating conditions (high loads/low rotational speeds) on sleeve journal bearings

Journal bearings are often employed in rotating machines and several papers deal with their modelling and design. On the contrary, experimental tests are seldom presented, in particular when the bearings are used in severe operating conditions, i.e. with very high values of specific pressure and very low rotational speeds. This paper presents an experimental investigation about the influence of the applied static load on the behavior of a cylindrical journal bearing with two axial grooves. The profiles of the pressure and the oil-film thickness during the shaft rotation have been measured by one pressure probe and one proximity probe installed in the rotating shaft. Measurements of the shaft center position, dynamic coefficients, hydrodynamic pressure, temperature distributions on the bearing, oil-film thickness, and bearing profile deformation under several operating conditions are presented and discussed.