Analysis of Plain Cylindrical Journal Bearings in Turbulent Regime

This paper presents a simplified steady-state analysis of turbulent lubrication. Load-carrying capacity, attitude angle, and fluid film stiffness for plain cylindrical journal bearings operating in the turbulent regime are presented. Simple, easy to use relations for the calculation of load-carrying capacity were generated. Fluid film stiffnesses are included so that they can be used to calculate system critical speeds. In the analysis presented here, side leakage is neglected; however, existing published data on a 360 deg plain circular bearing were used to establish a correlation factor between laminar and turbulent leakage factors.