Investigations on the effects of surface texture on the performance of a porous journal bearing operating with couple stress fluids

In the present work, the hydrodynamic lubrication of a porous journal bearing is investigated with considering the effects of surface texturing at three different locations on the bearing surface operated with couple stress fluids. Darcy’s equation is used to account for the effects of porous region of the bearing. The Stokes constitutive equations used for taking couple stress effects into account and the sinusoidal wave texture equation for texture at different locations on the bearing surface are used for deriving modified Reynolds equation. Centre differencing approach of finite difference scheme is adopted for discretisation of governing equations. It has been found that couple stress fluids improved the bearing performance. Moreover, the texture imposed on the bearing surface gives significant effects. Three configurations (configurations 1, 2 and 3) have been considered in the present work at three different locations and bearing performance characteristics have been calculated. The results revealed that the texturing improved the bearing performance in case of configuration 2 in comparison to two other locations (configurations 1 and 3).