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Boundary Conditions of Cavitation Regions in

Journal Bearings
a
Leif Floberg
a
Institute of Machine Elements, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg,
Sweden

Version of record first published: 25 Mar 2008

To cite this article: Leif Floberg (1961): Boundary Conditions of Cavitation Regions in Journal Bearings, A S L E
Transactions, 4:2, 282-286

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 ASL E TR ANSACTI ONS 4, 282-28 6 (196 1)
Boundary Conditions of Cavitation Regions in
Journal Bearings
By LEIF FLOBERGI
The behavior oj t he oil in a cavitation region is studied. Boundary conditions oj the pressure
distribution at th e inlet and at the outlet border oj such a region are giv en. Calculation oj the
pow er loss in a cavitat ed zone is demo nstrated.
Introduction
Downloaded by [North Carolina State University] at 22:32 24 August 2012
FOR a long time the re has been some con fusion in th e
hydrodynamic theory regarding th e cavi ta tion occur ring
in divergent parts of the bearings . Often arbitrary
boundary cond itions are used to give the pressure build-
up . H owever, it is not enough to have the continuity
equation satisfied in the oil region. The continuity of flow
must also be satisfied within the cavitation region and
at the boundaries between the two regions . As cavita-
tion influences the pressure build-up, it is not reasonable
to do calculations in cases where cavitation occurs, be-
fore the behavior of the oil in such a region is studied.
Some authors treat the ruptured region as an oil region ,
others as an air region. None of these assumptions can
be accepted , as they violate the continuity condition.
T he cavitation problem must be solved, before charts
and tables for bearing design can be made.
In the section headed Application two partial journal
bearing cases are nume rically treated. T hese have the
bea ring angle 120 0 and dive rging parts of 40 ° and 30 0
respec tively a t the leadin g edge.
Nomenclature
h Oil film thickness
Po Plj':!/f!V, Nondimensionalload per unit width
Pressure
P
Po PI!,:! / f!W, N ondimensional pressure
V, V Surface velocities
x, .Z Coordinates
a Angle between leading edge and load line
~ Bearing angle
E Eccentricity ratio
8 04 Angular coordinate of the leading edge
f! Absolute viscosity
Co nt ributed by the ASLE T echnical Co mmittee on Bearings
and Bearing Lubrication a nd presented a t th e Ann ual M eetin g
of th e Am eri can Society of Lubrication En gin eers held in Cincin -
nati , Ohio, April 1960.
1 R esearch En gineer , Institute of Machine E lements, Chalmers
University of Technology, Goteborg, Swed en.
282
L/ D Width-diameter ratio
L Shear stress
1!' Crr , Radial clearance/journal radius
W Angular velocity
Oil film theory
The hydrodynamic pressu re in a bearing is derived
from the well-known Reynolds' equation. I n its original
form from 1886 [Ref. ( 1) ] it is written
[ 1]
If this equation gives positive pressure all over the
bearing, the solu tion is the correct one . If, however, the
solution gives sub -atmospheric pressures over parts of
the bearing area, this means that the oil film will rupture
and the solution must be rejected . T hen further con-
siderations are needed.
Cavitation theory
Bearing tes ts show that film rupture produces cav ita-
tion zones of essentially cons tant pressure. The oil film
can wit hstand sub-atmospheric pressures to some extent.
When a bearing starts rotating, it is possible to measur e
50-7070 vac uum in a cavitated region . H owever, this
condition is not stationary, as air is continuously ex-
pelled from the oil making the ruptured zone larger and
increasing the pressure. After a quarter of an hour the
vacuum may be 10-30 % , and after some hours it is
only about 2---4 %. For practical bearing cases , it is thus
correct to assume atmospheric pressure in the cavitation
region.
To solve a bearing case where cavitation occurs it is
necessary to have a theory for the behavior of the oil
at the boundaries of and within such a region . The loca -
tion of the boundaries is also to be determined , which
is another complication of the problem.
At the beginning of the ruptured oil film the con-
tinuity condi tion req uires zero pressure derivative in
the direction of motio n, if the oil ad here s to the surfaces
 Cavitation Regions in Journal Bearings 283

and there are no pressures lower than the atmospheric
pressure, and thus
oP
P = -OX = 0 [2 ]
where zero is the atmospheric pressure.
This condition at the end of the pr essure build-up is
nowad ays widely accepted . In the ruptured region the
oil flow is divided into st rips and between the strips is
air , which is sta tiona ry . The appearance of a cavitation
region is shown in Fig. 1. The oil adheres to the surfaces
will be very slightly influenced and the difference be-
tween the areas of the air st rips in the two cases is fully
negligible. The location of the zero pressure deri vative is
in both cases approximately the same.
In order to determine the location of the boundary
at th e end of the ruptured region , we must study the
continuity of flow through thi s one. As the pressure is
const ant, th ere are no pressure flows and there is on ly
flow in the x-direction (see Fi g. 3) . The oil quantity
z

Oi l Groove
Oil
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Air

FIG. l. Oil strips in a cavitat ion region

and the section of the st rips is approximately rectangu- F I G. 3. Oil continuity throu gh a cav ita tio n region
lar. This behavior can be expe rimenta lly verified by us-
ing tr anspar ent bearing material. In th eory an infinite ente ring th e region over th e width ~z at the in let bound-
number of strips is assumed ; but in p ractice there will ary must th erefore lea ve over the same width at the
be a finit e number of them giving insignificant deviation outlet boundary. Thus th e followin g equation must be
from the present theory. The oil and air strips have sa tisfied
been shown in experiments by Cole and Hughes (2).
Howeve r, th ey used an oil hole for th e lubricant supply , -
Uh* ' Uh
~Z . = _ . ~z --
h:i [ -~z
OP oP
+- ~x
J[3]
which is unsu itable, as the corresp onding case ha s not
2 '. . __. ~c. 2 12[1 ox oz
been theoretically tabulated . where h* is the oil film thickness at the inlet boundary
In front of th e cavitation region th ere is sometimes of t he ruptured reg ion. Equation [3] determines the ,-
part of th e pressure curve below th e constan t cavita- location of the outlet boundary of this region.
tion pressure. This part decreases with time and it ma y ~x dx
be assumed that eventually it vani shes. The appearance As here lim ~ = - -d ' i.e. the derivative of the
of a cavitation region , when we have such a slope of the ~= ~Q oZ Z
pressure curve, is shown in Fi g. 2. Because of the very bord er line, the equation becomes
small s ub-a t mospheric pressures, the pressure bui ld-up
Uh* = Uh _ ~ [oP _ oP . dX J [4]
Pre ssure Curve 2 2 OZ
12[1 ox
dz
As Eq. [1 J is usually solved by the relaxation method ,
a probable boundary of the cavitation region is assumed
and then adjusted until the Eq s. [2] and [4] ar e satis-
Oil fied everywhere alon g the border. Now the continuity of
flow is sa tisfied both in the oil and in the cavitation
Air region and also at the boundaries between the two
regions and the solution is thus the desired one .
At th e end of film rupture th ere is a jump in the
press ure deri vatives, as th e viscosity value is changed
from that of air to th at of oil. This is the same sort of
jump as th at in th e derivative in vertical direction of
the hydrostatic pre ssure at a water surface.

Power loss at cavitation

Several authors, am ong them Cameron and Wo od
(3) , Sassenfeld and Walther (4), and Raimondi and
Boyd (5) , assume that there is a full oil film with a
FIG. 2. The form of th e a ir st rips in a ca vita tion region straight line velocity distribution in the cavitated re-
 284 L EIF FLOBERG

gion. This does not agree with th e cont inuity condition, violates the continuity condition 4 and gives erroneous
as th e oil film thickness va ries and th e oil film is divided pressure distributions. As th ere is a st ra ight line velocity
into strips . Thus they give too high values of the power distribution both at th e inlet and outlet borders of the
loss in this region. The air strips must be taken into cavita tion region, and the oil film thic kness is not th e
account. As the width of th e str ips is inve rsely propor- same, it is obvious th at th e cont inu ity is not satisfied.
tional to th e oil film thickness, th e mean shear stress Figur e 4 shows the pressure distri bution derived by
can be written Raimondi ( 11) for a 120 0 pa rtial journal bea ring at the
h* U eccent ricity 0.8 and with a dive rging part of 40 ° length
T = . 11 [5 ]
h h at th e leading edge. The width of th e bear ing is equal
to its diameter. Fi gur e 5 shows th e same case calculated
Str ip flow in the cavitation region has earlier been after the abo ve th eory (E q. [4 ]) . T here is an obvious
tr eated by Wilcock and Rosenblatt (6). H owever , when
calcul ating the reduced power loss, th ey assume that
cavitation starts at th e minimum space, and in th e oil
region th ey neglect th e pr essure flow term , which make s
two approximations.
Downloaded by [North Carolina State University] at 22:32 24 August 2012

Application
In man y journal bearing cases th e oil groove will be
located at the maximum space or in th e converging part
of th e bearing. Then th e pre ssure build-up will start
at the groove and end with zero deriva tive. This case
is widely used and needs no fur th er discussion as long
as pre ssu re distribution and load capacity ar e concern ed.
Ho wever , there is still some confusion in literature due
to the power loss calcul ati on as treat ed above and also
in the Refs. ( 7-10) .
Now a case with a cavitation region a fter th e groove
will be st udied. The groove is then located in th e di-
verging sp ace. This case has recently been treated by
Raim ondi ( 11) . How ever , he uses th e boundary con-
8
FIG. 5. Pressur e distri bu tion (/3 120 0, L ID 1, E 0.8
diti on 2, which holds for th e end of the pressure build-
and fl .t = -40 °) .
up, also at the inlet boundary of th e pressure. Thi s

FIG. 4. Typical press ure distributio n for di verging-con vergin g

film sha pe (E = 0 .8, S .t = -40° , 0.//3 = 0.676 ) . Fi gure .taken FIG. 6. Illu stration of sma ll a rea of film rupture at entrance
fro m Raimondi (1 1) . (E = =
0 .8, 8.t .- 30 ° ) . Figur e tak en fro m Raim ondi (11).
 Cavitation R egions in J ournal Bearings 285

deviation between the two pressure distributions . Rai- 4. SASSENFELD, H., and WALTHER, A., "Gleitlagerberechnungen."
mondi gives the load number Po = 0.134 and the load VDl-Forschungshejt 441 (1954).
5. RAIMONDI, A. A., and BOYD, J ., "A Solution for the Finite
loca tion a/~ = 0.676 . The above theory gives Po =
Journal Bearing and Its App lication to Analysis and Design
0.108 and a/~ =
0.71 1. IlL" Trans . ASLE 1, [ 1] ( 1958) .
Raimondi 's pressure distribution for the same case, 6. WILCOCK, D. F ., and ROSENBLATT , M., "Oil Flow, Key Factor
but with a diverging part of 30 ° length at the leading in Sleeve Bearing Performance." Tran s. ASME 74, 849
edge is shown in Fig . 6. The pressure distribution for (1952) .
the last case using the above th eory is given in F ig. 7. 7. FLOBERG, L ., "The Infinit e Journal Bearing, Considering
Vaporization." Chalmers University of Technology, Goteborg,
Sweden (1957).
8. FLOBERG, L ., "Experimental I nvesti gation of Power Loss in
~/4 I""" """'<..<
W~ Journal Bearings, Considering Cavitation ." Chalmers Uni-
~/ ~
I
Po=O.04 versity of Technology , Goteborg, Sweden (1959).
~ ~.O8 --....... ~ h mox
9. JAKOBSSON, B., and FLOBERG, L ., "The Finite Journal Bear-

-....... -,
ing, Co nsidering Vaporization." Chalmers University of Tech-

/
/ /"
--- 0.1 2
-' \
nology, Gotebo rg, Sweden (1957) .
10 . JAKOBSSON, B., and FLOBERG, L ., "The Centrally Loaded
Downloaded by [North Carolina State University] at 22:32 24 August 2012

/ - 0.16 Partial Journal Bearing." Chalmers U nive rsity of Tech-

1/ ~.20
-."\ \\ nology, Goteborg, Sweden (1959).
II / """" \\\ 11. RAIMONDI, A. A., "A Theoretical Study of the Effect of Off-

III /
,, l
I /
~. 24
O.~ f-...
........
..... "J ,
"\
\\ \ set Loads on the Performance of a 120° P a rtial Journal
Bearing." Tran s. ASLE 2, [1] (1959).
12. JAKOBSSON, B., and FLOBERG, L., "The Partial J ou rn al Bear-
K.. ./ I ing ." Chalmers Unive rsity of Technology, Gdteborg, Sweden

\..." '
.........
-'./ ./
~.J
(1958) .
13. J AKOBSSON, B., and FLOBERG, L ., "The Rectang ular Plane
Pad Bearing." Cha lmers University of T echnology , Goteborg,
Sweden (1958) .

FIG. 7. Pressure distribution

and 8 .{ = _ 30 °).
8' (B
Also here there is a considerable move of the boundary.
Raimondi gives Po = 0.208 and a/~ = 0.655. The above
theory gives 0.200 and 0.652 respectively. T he diversity
in bearing width is due to the fact that Raimondi uses
different scales in the two directions.
The relaxation is here made with the network 5 X 12
shown in the figures , and therefore the solutions are
somewhat approximate.
The two cases treated above are unpractical and the
bearing quantities calculated by Raimondi are sligh tly
affected by the above cavitation theory. T herefore the
above discussion has very little influence on Raimondi 's
extremely good work .
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper has been produced during lubrication research at
the Institute of Machine Elements, Chalmers Un iversity of
Te chnology , Goteborg, Sweden . [Previous reports, Refs . (7-10 ,
12, 13)] . I wish to express m y appreciation to Professor B.
J ak obsson, head of the I nstitute, for his kind support. I should
also like to thank th e Swedish Technical R esearch Cou ncil for
the ir sponsorship.
REFERENCES
1. REYNOLDS , 0 ., "On the Theory of Lubrication . . . ." Phil .
Tran s. Roy. Soc . 177, 157 (1886) .
2. COLE, J . A., and HU GHES, C. J ., "Oil Flow and Film Extent
in Complete Journal Bearings." En gineer (M a rch 16, 1956) .
3. CAMERON, A., and W OOD, W . L., "The Fu ll Journal Bearing."
Proc , lnst . Me ch. Engrs. (London) 161, 59 ( 1949) .
I, E 0.8
DISCUSSION
H . CONNORS (Westinghouse R esearch Laboratories, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania) :
The author's paper is an interesting contribution to the math-
ematical analysis of journal bearings. It is felt , however, that
certain points need clarification to prevent mis understanding. It
is not clearly indicated whether the con tinuity Equation [3], on
which the analysis is based, applies on ly for the particula r case
in which the bearing is completely surrounded by lub ricant and
the make-up oil is drawn into the bearing by small negative
pressures exist ing in the diverging region , or is th ought applicab le
to other more general modes of lubricant supply. It also seems
important that the reader be told that the existence and some
estimate of the magnitude of the negative press ures is essential
in applying the boundary conditions, for as the author says in a
related paper ( A l), "If the vapor pre ssure were exactly t he same
as the pres sure in the su rrounding oil, no oil wo uld be sucked
into the bearing." It is also felt that an illustration, such as Fig.
56.1 in the reference given below, would help greatly to clarify
the physical concepts entailed in the paper being discusse d .
REFERENCE
A1 . J AKOBSSON, B., and FLOBERG, L ., "The Finite J ourn al Bear~
ing Considering Vaporization," Report No .3, ..rnstitute of
Machine E lements, Chalmers University of T echnology ,
Goteborg, Sweden (1957) .
AUTHOR'S CLOSURE :
I want to thank Mr. Connors for his comment on the paper
and will tr y to elucidate the questions he raises . The continuity
condition at the downstream bo undary ( Eq. [3]) is gene rally
valid irrespective of the conditions at the bearing boundaries.
The different terms in this equation have been known sin ce 1886
and represent oil flows. It mu st be understood that t he oil
 286 L EIF FLO BERG
flow per unit wid th entering at the upstream boundary of the
cavitation region must lea ve at th e downstream boundary, as
there cannot be an y flow in th e a-directi on within thi s consta nt
pressure region.
It is said in the paper that the cavita tion p ressure in normal
bear in g cases is just below atmosph eric and in pr acti ce ca n be
put to atmospheric . The suction of oil into th e bearing fr om
the bearing sides is thus negligibly low and the lubricant supply
has to be guaranteed by using e.g, an axia l oil groove.
In the numerical examples of my paper there are oil gro oves
at the leading and trailing edges and th e cavitation pres sur e is
atmospheric. In th e Fi g. 56.1 fro m a n earlier report , referred to
by the discussor, the bearing ha s no oil gro oves a nd the cavit a-
Downloaded by [North Carolina State University] at 22:32 24 August 2012
tion press ure is put to a certain sub-a tmospheric value. The
latter case is thus quite different from the one treated in my
paper . Th e main consideration in bearing a na lyses is :
The boundary conditions at th e bea ring sides a nd at eve ntual
oil groo ves must be sa tisfied.
The Reyn olds' continuity equ ation of th e oil region mu st be
satisfied.
The boundary cond itions of eventual cavitation regions, as
given in my paper, must be satisfied .
There is a n infinite number of different bearing cases and it
is essential that the conditions in the or y a nd tests ar e the same
for corresponding cases.