A Study on the Performance of a Magnetic-Fluid-Based Hydrodynamic Short Journal Bearing

Abstract

Efforts have been made to study and analyze the performance of a hydrodynamic short journal bearing under the presence of a magnetic fluid lubricant. With the usual assumptions of hydrodynamic lubrication, the associated Reynolds equation for the fluid pressure is solved with appropriate boundary conditions. In turn, this is then used to calculate the load-carrying capacity which results in the calculation of friction. The computed results presented in graphical form suggest that the bearing system registers an improved performance owing to the magnetic fluid as compared to the conventional lubricant. It is clearly observed that the load-carrying capacity increases nominally while the coefficient of friction decreases significantly. Besides, it is seen that the bearing can support a load even when there is no flow of lubricant. In addition, this type of study may offer an additional degree of freedom from design point of view in terms of the forms of the magnitude of the magnetic fluid.