Numerical study on foil journal bearings with protuberant foil structure

A numerical model coupling the hydrodynamic pressure of lubricant film with the deformation of foil structure was developed for a type of foil journal bearing with protuberant foil structure. An isothermal and isoviscous lubricant was used in the fluid model, and a perturbation method was applied to linearize the Reynolds equation. The top foil was modeled as a strip of rectangular thin plate supported at a rigid point. The distributions of film pressure, film thickness, and foil deformation were solved by the finite element method (FEM). The effects of eccentricity ratio, bearing number, and number of protuberances on the characteristics of bearings were analyzed.