Hydrodynamic Analysis of Circular and Non-Circular Journal Bearings Using Generalized Differential Quadrature Method

This paper presents the application of the generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method for the hydrodynamic analysis of circular and noncircular, two lobe and three lobe, journal bearings. GDQ is a simple, efficient, high-order numerical technique and it uses the information on all grid points to approach the derivatives of the unknown function. The effectiveness of the solution technique is verified by comparing the GDQ computed results with that of analytical solutions and FDM results from the published literature. It is found that GDQ method can easily compete with the existing methods of solution of lubrication problems for its analytical simplicity; smaller computer storage requirements and capability of producing accurate results with very high computational efficiency. Also the effects of design and assemble parameters, namely the eccentricity ratio, preload factor, mount and tilt angles on the performance parameters of these bearings have been investigated using GDQ method. Results show that the variation of mount and tilt angles can has variable effects on noncircular lobed journal bearing performance parameters. Among the two types of noncircular bearings considered, the effect of the mount and tilt angles is more significant for two lobe bearings in comparison with the three lobe bearings.