Effect of Bearing Edges Chamfering on the Characteristics of a Wide Range of Journal Bearing Ratio Under 3D Misalignment

The presence of misalignment in the typical journal-bearing application is unavoidable. There is always a level of misalignment in this type of bearing as a result of distortions due to housing supports of the bearing, installation errors, deformation, manufacturing problems, manufacturing tolerances, and many other causes. This deviation problem results in a severe negative impact on the performance of the load-supporting system. This work investigates the effect of introducing a chamfer on the bearing edges in order to enhance the system performance under the effect of a shaft misalignment. The investigation is carried out for a wide range of finite-length bearings under several misalignment parameter values. The finite difference method is considered in the numerical solution of the problem under an overrelaxed Gauss Seidle solution. Results show that the edges chamfering increases the film thickness and reduces both the friction coefficient and the pressure levels. This important outcome is obtained in the whole range of the bearing ratios which emphasizes the generality of the results. Furthermore, the asymmetric pressure distribution that results from the misalignment is reduced as the pressure spike decreases significantly due to the chamfering of the bearing edges.