A TRANSIENT MODIFIED REYNOLDS-ELROD EQUATION (MREE) WITH DISCRETE INJECTION: EFFECTS ON OIL FILM THICKNESS OF A HIGHLY-LOADED HYBRID JOURNAL BEARING
Highly loaded hydrodynamic bearings are widely used in the industry in e.g., combustion engines. Here, the demands for fuel efficiency are continuously increasing pushing the lubrication conditions to their absolute critical limit. The lubrication conditions can be improved by actively injecting pressurized oil into the bearing crevice through orifices placed around the bearing. The optimal injection timing and location is found through mathematical modelling for lightly and moderately loaded bearings. Nevertheless, for highly loaded bearings, the modified Reynolds Equation for active lubrication needs to be extended, in order to accommodate mass conservation cavitation. In this framework, the main original contribution of this work is how to include the mass conserving cavitation boundary conditions into the modified Reynolds Equation for active lubrication, considering the coupling between temperature and pressure.