Chapter 2
Classification of Non-circular Journal
Bearings
The chapter presents the reasons towards the development of non-circular journal-
bearing profiles and classification of such profiles. The chapter also presents the
basic mechanism of operation on which non-circular journal bearing works. In the
last section of the chapter, the different regime of lubrication which may occur in
various types of bearing has also been presented.
2.1 Circular Journal Bearing
The basic configuration of the circular journal bearing consists of a journal that
rotates relative to the bearing which is also known as bush (Fig. 2.1). Efficient
operation of such bearing requires the presence of a lubricant in the clearance space
between the journal and the bush. In hydrodynamic lubrication, it is assumed that
the fluid does not slip at the interface with the bearing and journal surface. There
exists a velocity gradient over the thickness of the fluid, which depends upon the
relative movement of bearing surfaces. There will be no pressure generation if the
bearing surfaces are parallel or concentric, which means bearing could support any
bearing load. However, if the surfaces are at a slight angle, the resulting lubrication
fluid velocity gradients will be such that generation of pressure results from the
wedging action of the bearing surfaces and on the same concept hydrodynamic
lubrication depends.
The operation of hydrodynamic lubrication in journal bearings has been illus-
trated in Fig. 2.2. Before the rotation commences, i.e. at rest, the shaft rests on the
bearing surface. When the journal starts to rotate, it will climb the bearing surface
gradually as the speed is further increased; it will then force the lubricant into the
wedge-shaped region. When more and more lubricant is forced into a wedge-shaped
clearance space, the shaft moves up the bore until an equilibrium condition is
reached, and now, the shaft is supported on a wedge of lubricant. The moving
The Author(s) - SpringerBriefs 2016 3
A. Chauhan, Non-Circular Journal Bearings, SpringerBriefs in Materials,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27333-4_2
4 2 Classification of Non-circular Journal Bearings
OB RJ
X
e OJ
Fig. 2.1 Schematic of circular journal bearing
W W W
In operation
Stationary Just starting
Pressure distribution
Fig. 2.2 Schematic of operation of hydrodynamic lubrication in journal bearing
surfaces are then held apart by the pressure generated within the fluid film. Journal
bearings are designed such that, at normal operating conditions, the continuously
generated fluid pressure supports the load with no contact between the bearing sur-
faces. This operating condition is known as thick film or fluid film lubrication and
results in a very low operating friction.
On the other hand, if the lubricant film is insufficient between the relatively mov-
ing parts, it may lead to surface contact and the phenomenon is normally known
as boundary lubrication. This occurs at rotation start-up, a slow speed operation
or if the load is too heavy. This regime results in bearing wear and a relatively high
2.2 Non-circular Journal Bearing 5
friction value. If a bearing is to be operated under boundary lubricating conditions,
special lubricants must be used. Among hydrodynamic bearings, circular journal
bearing is the most familiar and widely used bearing. Simple form of this bearing
offers many advantages in its manufacturing as well as in its performance. However,
the circular journal bearings operating at high speed encounter instability problems
of whirl and whip. Instability may damage not only the bearings, but also the
complete machine.
Moreover, these bearings usually experience a considerable variation in tempera-
ture due to viscous heat dissipation. This significantly affects the bearing perfor-
mance as lubricant viscosity is a strong function of temperature. Furthermore,
excessive rise in temperature can cause oxidation of the lubricant and, consequently,
lead to failure of the bearing. Pressure also influences the viscosity of the lubricant
to certain extent. Usually viscosity increases exponentially as the pressure increases,
which in turn increases the load capacity of the journal bearing. Researchers have
studied the behaviour of circular journal bearing by adopting various numerical
approaches to simulate the performance in accordance with the real conditions.
2.2 Non-circular Journal Bearing
It has been reported in the literature that the temperature rise is quite high in circular
journal bearings as they operate with single active oil film. This resulted in the
development of bearings with non-circular profile, which operate with more than
one active oil film. This feature accounts for the superior stiffness, damping, and
reduced temperature in the oil film as compared to the circular journal bearings.
Almost all the non-circular journal bearing geometries enhance the shaft stability,
and under proper conditions, this will also reduce power losses and increase oil flow
(as compared to an inscribed circular bearing), thus reducing the oil film tempera-
ture. Among non-circular journal bearings, offset-halves, elliptical, lemon bore, and
three-lobe configurations are the most common.
The offset-halves journal bearing has been commonly used as a lobed bearing in
which two lobes are obtained by orthogonally displacing the two halves of a cylin-
drical bearing. Offset-halves journal bearings (Fig. 2.3) find applications in gear
boxes connecting turbine and generator for the power generation industries. They
can also be used where primary directions of force, constant direction of rotation are
found or high bearing load capacity, long service life, high stiffness, and damping
values are the main features under concentration. If the unit is operated at full power,
such requirements can also be met by lemon bore bearings. Lemon bore bearing is
a variation of the plain bearing where bearing clearance is reduced in one direction
and this bearing has a lower load-carrying capacity than the plain bearings, but is
more susceptible to oil whirl at high speeds (Chauhan 2011). However, equipment
must often be operated at lower performance levels, particularly in the times of
reduced current needs. It is precisely under these conditions that lemon bore bear-
ings may provide unstable conditions, which may require equipment shutdown to
6 2 Classification of Non-circular Journal Bearings
Upper Lobe
0
0L 0B 0U
0J
e
OIL HOLE
Lower Lobe
Fig. 2.3 Schematic diagram of offset-halves journal bearing
avoid damage. Offset-halves journal bearings have the durability equal to lemon
bore bearings, while the bearings have good stiffness and damping properties which
enables light loads while bearing runs at high speeds. The same bearing profile also
offers the advantage of a long, minimally convergent inlet gap, which results in high
load capacity for it. Also, the externally applied force and compression resulting
from the horizontal displacement of bearing halves accurately holds the shaft in
the lubricant film. This effect produces excellent characteristics such as elastic
rigidity and damping by the oil film. Thus, the offset-halves journal bearings prove
to be technical alternative to conventional lemon bore bearings (Chauhan and
Sehgal 2008).
The elliptical journal bearings (Fig. 2.4) are commonly used in turbo-sets of
small and medium ratings, steam turbines, and generators. The so-called elliptical
journal bearing is actually not elliptic in cross-section but is usually made up of two
circular arcs whose centers are displaced along a common vertical straight line from
the centre of the bearing. The same bearing has also been referred as two-lobe jour-
nal bearing by some researchers. The bearing so produced has a large clearance in
the horizontal or split direction and a smaller clearance in the vertical direction.
Elliptical journal bearings are slightly more stable toward the oil whip than the
cylindrical bearings. In addition to this, elliptical journal bearing runs cooler than a
cylindrical bearing because of the larger horizontal clearance for the same vertical
clearance. Some other non-circular journal bearing configurations; Three-lobe jour-
nal bearing (symmetrical and asymmetrical, Fig. 2.5), Elliptical journal bearing
(profile is elliptic in cross-section, Fig. 2.6), and orthogonally displaced journal
bearing (vertical offset, Fig. 2.7); have also been shown below.
2.3 Methods of Analysis 7
Fig. 2.4 Schematic diagram of elliptical journal bearing (two-lobe)
Fig. 2.5 Symmetrical RL
three-lobe bearing
RL
RL
2.3 Methods of Analysis
In earlier works, the bearing performance parameters have been computed by
solving the Reynolds equation only. Over the years, many researchers have pro-
posed number of mathematical models. A more realistic thermohydrodynamic
8 2 Classification of Non-circular Journal Bearings
Rj
Minor Axis
O
b
OJ
Major Axis
Fig. 2.6 Truly elliptical journal bearing
Upper Lobe
Rb
Ou
O
b
OL
OJ
Rj
Rb
Lower Lobe
Fig. 2.7 Orthogonally displaced journal bearing
2.4 Regimes of Lubrication 9
(THD) model for bearing analysis has been developed which treats the viscosity as
a function of both the temperature and pressure. Moreover, it also considers the
variation of temperature across the film thickness and through the bounding solids
(housing and Journal). The thermohydrodynamic model also presents coupled solu-
tions of governing equations by incorporating appropriate boundary conditions and
considering the heat conduction across the bearing surfaces. Even the importance of
THD studies in hydrodynamic bearings can be justified by looking at the large volumes
of research papers that are being published by researchers using various models.
The theoretical investigations have been carried out into the performance of
hydrodynamic journal bearing by adopting various methods, which are classified in
two categories as (Kumar 2007):
1. Methods which comprise a full numerical treatment of temperature variation
across the lubrication film thickness in energy equation using Finite Difference
Method (FDM) or Finite Element Method (FEM).
2. Methods which incorporate polynomial approximation to evaluate the transverse
temperature variation in the lubrication film thickness.
Both approaches mentioned can be used for the analysis of hydrodynamic bear-
ings and have certain merits. The first approach is relatively accurate at the expense
of computational speed and time, whereas the second is relatively fast at the expense
of accuracy.
However, in recent years, the analysis works for the journal bearings have been
carried out using various available simulation softwares like COMSOL, ANSYS,
etc. The simulation softwares carry out the analysis in real conditions and thus the
results obtained are littler higher than those obtained by above-mentioned two
methods of analysis.
2.4 Regimes of Lubrication
From the ages, it is a known fact that lubrication reduces the friction between slid-
ing surfaces by filling the surface cavities and making the surfaces smoother and
such action of lubricant is known as lubrication. In other words, lubrication is a
process by which the friction and wear rates in a moving contact are reduced by
using suitable lubricant. Lubricant is a substance introduced between relatively
moving parts to reduce friction ( = 0.10.0001) and wear rate. Most lubricants are
some type of fluid such as mineral and synthetic oils etc.; however, there are some
solid lubricants, e.g. gold, silver, polymers, etc. Almost every relatively moving
component in an assembly requires lubricant. Liquid lubricants can be brought into
a converging contact due to rotation and pressure generation between the bodies;
they can lower the temperature of interacting surfaces and remove contaminants.
Liquid lubricants can be mixed with other chemicals to provide additional proper-
ties (i.e. corrosion resistance, surface active layers, etc.).
10 2 Classification of Non-circular Journal Bearings
Different Lubrication Regimes
Coefficient of friction
Stribeck curve
Beraring Number
N/P
Boundary lubrication Mixed lubrication Hydrodynamic lubrication
Fig. 2.8 Different regimes of lubrication
Four different forms of lubrication can be identified for self-pressure-generating
lubricated contacts: (1) Hydrodynamic, (2) Elastohydrodynamic, (3) Partial or
mixed, (4) Boundary. Different regimes of lubrication can be shown (Fig. 2.8) using
Stribecks curve (Stachowiak and Batchelor 1993) available in most literature deal-
ing lubrication.
The Stribecks curve presented is for a hypothetical fluid lubricated bearing
system presents friction coefficient as a function of sliding speed, fluid viscosity
and unit load. Three lubrication mechanisms; boundary, mixed, and hydrodynamic
lubrications; have been marked on this plot. This plot defines the stability of lubrica-
tion. Say the operator is operating to the right of minimum friction and an increase
in lubricant temperature happens which causes decrease in viscosity and hence a
smaller value of bearing number. The coefficient of friction decreases, not as much
as heat is generated in shearing the lubricant, and consequently lubricant tempera-
ture drops. Thus, the region to the right of the minimum defines stable lubrication
because variations in this side are self-correcting. To the left of line, a decrease in
viscosity would increase the friction. As temperature rise would increase, the
viscosity would be reduced still more. The result would be compounded and the
region represents unstable lubrication and load sharing.
2.4.1 Hydrodynamic or Full Film Lubrication
Hydrodynamic or full film lubrication is the condition when the load-carrying
surfaces are separated by a relatively thick film of lubricant. This is a stable regime
of lubrication and metal-to-metal contact does not occur during the steady state
operation of the bearing. The lubricant pressure is self-generated by the moving
surfaces drawing the lubricant into the wedge formed by the bounding surfaces at a
high enough velocity to generate the pressure to completely separate the surfaces
2.4 Regimes of Lubrication 11
and support the applied load. The coefficient of friction is lower than with
boundary-layer lubrication. In hydrodynamic lubrication, the following charac-
teristics can be outlined:
1. With increase in load, the fluid film thickness at the point of minimum thickness
decreases.
2. In this lubrication, the pressure within the fluid mass increases when the applied
load decreases the film thickness.
3. Pressure within the fluid mass is highest at some point approaching minimum
clearance and lowest at the point of maximum clearance.
4. Viscosity of the oil increases as the pressure increases. Also, film thickness
increases with the use of more viscous oils.
5. Fluid friction increases as the viscosity of the lubricant becomes high.
2.4.2 Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication
Elastohydrodynamic lubrication is the condition that occurs when a lubricant is
introduced between surfaces that are in rolling contact, such as ball and rolling
element bearings. In this lubrication regime, the load is sufficiently high enough for
the surfaces to elastically deform during the hydrodynamic action.
2.4.3 Partial or Mixed Lubrication
Partial or mixed lubrication regime deals with the condition when the speed is
low, the load is high, or the temperature is sufficiently large to significantly reduce
lubricant viscositywhen any of these conditions occur, the tallest asperities of
the bounding surfaces will protrude through the film and occasionally come in
contact.
2.4.4 Boundary Lubrication
Boundary Lubrication term was coined by English Biologist Sir Hardy in 1922.
He quoted that Very thin adsorbed layers, about 10 thick, were sufficient to
cause two glass surfaces to slide over each other. The layer of lubricant separates
sliding surfaces, i.e. no direct contact of the sliding parts. This situation is required
for many applications, such as steel gears, piston-rings, and metal-working tools, to
prevent severe wear or high coefficients of friction and seizure. The physical and
chemical properties of thin surface films are of significant importance, while the
properties of the bulk fluid lubricant are insignificant.
12 2 Classification of Non-circular Journal Bearings
1
Wear rate
Time
b c
1
Wear rate
Wear rate
1 2
2 3
3
Load Temperature
Fig. 2.9 Comparative study among dry (1), boundary (2), and hydrodynamic (3) lubrication
mechanisms (a) Wear rate vs time, (b) Wear rate vs load, (c) Wear rate vs temperature (E-Learning
courses from IITs/IISC NEPTEL)
2.4.5 Mechanisms of Boundary Lubrication
Physisorption: is the classical form of adsorption. Molecules of adsorbate may
attach or detach from a surface without any irreversible changes to the surface or the
adsorbate.
Chemisorption: It is an irreversible or partially irreversible form of adsorption which
involves some degree of chemical bonding between adsorbate and substance.
To understand lubrication in all respect, a comparative study among dry,
boundary lubricated, and fluid film lubricated has been discussed here and is shown
in Fig. 2.9 E-Learning courses from IITs/IISC NEPTEL. From the Fig. 2.9, one can
observe that as the time increases, wear rate decreases and remain constant up to
certain time, then increases for dry lubrication. For boundary lubrication, the wear
rate decreases up to certain time, then decreases or increases depending on the
improvement in surface smoothness. If surface smoothness occurs, boundary lubri-
cation turns out to be fluid film lubrication which means wear rate decreases, other-
wise wear rate increases. For fluid film lubrication, wear rate drastically decreases,
then remain constant up to certain limit and then increases. Also, for dry lubrication,
as the load increases wear rate increases. For boundary lubrication, wear rate
increases and the rate of increase in wear rate is lesser than the dry lubrication. For
fluid film lubrication also, wear rate increases, but rate of increase in wear rate is
References 13
initially lower. Same process does occur with increase in the temperature. It should
also be noticed that the wear rate increases for all three lubrication mechanisms with
increase in temperature. One of the common elements in all machines is spur gear.
Spur gear generally operates under boundary lubrication regime.
2.4.6 Hydrostatic Lubrication
In this mechanism of lubrication, the bearing surfaces are fully separated by a
lubricating film of liquid or gas. The medium of lubrication is forced between the
surfaces by an external source of pressure. A complete fluid film is present even at
zero sliding speed as long as a continuous supply of pressurized lubricant is main-
tained. There is complete absence of sticking friction. Hydrostatic bearings can sup-
port very large masses and allow them to be moved from their stationary with the
use of minimal force.
References
Chauhan A. Experimental and theoretical investigations of the thermal behaviour of some non-
circular journal bearing profiles, Ph.D. thesis, Mechanical Engineering Department, NIT
Hamirpur; 2011.
Chauhan A, Sehgal R. An experimentation investigation of the variation of oil temperatures in
offset-halves journal bearing profile using different oils. Indian J Tribol. 2008;2:2741.
E-Learning courses from IITs/IISC NEPTEL, Mechanical Engineering (Boundary Lubrication),
Module 4. https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in/
Kumar R. Studies of the hydrodynamic bearings with surface profiling and entrained solid particu-
late, Industrial Tribology, Machine Dynamics and Maintenance Engineering Centre
(ITMMEC), IIT Delhi; 2007.
Stachowiak GW, Batchelor AW. Engineering tribology. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science; 1993.
p. 12331.
http://www.springer.com/978-3-319-27331-0
