Effects of texture slip surface on load-carrying capacity and cavitation of bearing

In order to reveal the effects of surface texture on the tribological performances of journal bearings for the micro-texture optimization design, a numerical slip boundary condition with double coefficients was determined to characterize the comprehensive effect of the macroscopic/microscopic interaction and was applied to the journal bearing surfaces with controlled micro-textures. Then, the cavitation was modeled by using a phase change model, and the effects of such macroscopic parameters as the surface texture location and its area on the load-carrying capacity and the cavitation were investigated. Finally, the proposed numerical slip boundary condition with double coefficients was verified by using an experimental bearing reported in a reference. Theoretical analysis results show that (1) the surface texture in the cavitation region has no effect on the pressure of the lubrication film and the load-carrying capacity of the bearing; (2) there exists a low-pressure effect at the front of the texture region but a dynamic-pressure effect at the end; (3) the textures in the hydrodynamic pressure-rising region may increase the load-carrying capacity in a positive correlation with the area of texture surface in this region, while the textures in the pressure-dropping region may reduce the load-carrying capacity and aggravate the cavitation.