Analysis of thermal and surface roughness effects of slider bearing in the case of turbulent lubricant flow using finite element method.

In this study, the effects of surface roughness and thermal on slider bearings with turbulent fluid film were examined using the Streamline Upwind Petrov–Galerkin (SUPG)-Finite Element Method. Using the assumption that roughness is stochastic and has a Gaussian random distribution, one-dimensional transverse and longitudinal surface roughness models were taken into consideration. The texture of the surface's irregularity is changed into a regular domain for computational efficiency. To derive the modified Reynolds equation for turbulent lubrication, the Ng-Pan turbulent model is used. For all local Reynolds values, the pressure distribution of the combined effect is less than the thermal and surface roughness influences of the one-dimensional longitudinal surface roughness, which is a reduction of 16% in load-carrying capacity performance and 3% decrease in friction force, for non-parallel (w = 0.4) between the surface roughness effect and the combined effect condition, respectively. However, the pressure distribution of the thermal effect is smaller than the combined and surface roughness effects in the transverse, one-dimensional roughness model for all local Reynolds values, which is a reduction of 33% in load–carrying capacity performance and 13% decrease in friction force, for non-parallel (w = 0.4) between the surface roughness effect and the thermal effect condition, respectively. Moreover, the combined effects at various temperatures are examined. As a result, the load-carrying capacity performance is better in the case where the pad temperature is lower than the slider in both longitudinal and transverse models. The performance of a slider bearing will generally be improved by taking surface roughness and the coefficients of turbulent lubrication equations into account. Tables and figures were used to present the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]