A CFD Study on the Significance of the Cavitation Modeling in  Textured Bearing Analysis

Susilowati; Muchammad; Mohammad Tauviqirrahman; Jamari

Authors

Susilowati Chemical Engineering Departement, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Jawa Timur, Jl. Raya Rungkut Madya, Gunung Anyar, Surabaya, Indonesia
Muchammad Laboratory for Surface Technology and Tribology, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente, Drienerlolaan 5, Postbus 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands
Mohammad Tauviqirrahman Mechanical Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty, Diponegoro University, Jl. Prof. H. Soedharto, Tembalang, Semarang, 50275, Indonesia
Jamari Mechanical Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty, Diponegoro University, Jl. Prof. H. Soedharto, Tembalang, Semarang, 50275, Indonesia

Keywords:

Inertia, cavitation, CFD (computational fluid dynamics), lubrication

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of cavitation modeling on the lubrication performance (i.e., load support, friction) is investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The comparison of the lubrication performance between the analysis with the cavitation model and that without cavitation model is of particular interest. Results are presented for two patterns of textured bearing, i.e., bearing with high inertia and one with low inertia. Based on the simulation results, the inclusion of cavitation modeling has a strong effect of the load support as well as the friction force. The “no-cavitation” cases lead to under-estimation of the predicted performance of lubrication. It is also shown the presence of the inertia is proven to increase the load support.