Rheodynamic Lubrication of an Externally Pressured Thrust Bearing Using Herschel-Bulkley Fluid with Sinusoidal Injection

Lubricants with variable viscosity are assuming greater importance for its application in polymer industry, thermal reactors and in biomechanics. With the bearing operations in machines being subject to high speeds, loads, increasing mechanical shearing forces and continually increasing pressure, there has been an increasing interest to use non-Newtonian fluids characterized by a yield value. Some of them, which fit into this class, are Bingham, Casson and Herchel-Bulkley models. In the present work, the problem of an externally pressurized thrust bearing lubricated with Herschel-Bulkley fluid under the sinusoidal flow rate has been investigated. Herschel-Bulkley fluids are characterized by a yield value, which leads to the formation of rigid core in the flow region. The shape and extent of the core has been determined numerically for various values of the Herschel-Bulkley number, power-law index, amplitude of sinusoidal fluid film and time. Numerical solutions have been obtained for the bearing performances such as pressure distribution and load capacity for different values of the Herschel-Bulkley number, power-law index, amplitude of sinusoidal fluid film and time. The effects of sinusoidal injection of the lubricant and the non-Newtonian characteristics on the bearing performances have been discussed.