Effect of runner surface velocity on the Thermohydrodynamic characteristics of Rayleigh step bearing by CFD method

A thermohydrodynamic analysis of fluid film Rayleigh step slider bearing, based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques is presented. The bearing has an infinite length and operates under incompressible laminar flow and steady conditions. This analysis is based on the numerical solution of the full two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations, coupled with the energy equation in the lubricant flow for optimized bearing geometry. Discretized forms of the governing equations are obtained by the control volume method and solved by the SIMPLE algorithm. In this study, the temperature and pressure fields in this type of bearing are obtained when the bearing operates under different steady conditions. Besides the effect of velocity of runner surface, which is an important factor in lubrication, is investigated. The numerical results are compared with theoretical data by other investigators and good agreement is found.