Steady-State Performance of Oil Lubricated Helical Groove Journal Bearing

The provision of helical grooves on the surface of a plain journal bearing should, in principle, improve the overall performance of the bearing. This improvement, however, depends on a number of parameters such as the arrangement of the grooves along the axial length of the bearing. In order to verify this supposition, two types of helical groove bearing with different groove arrangements and a reference plain journal bearing were studied to assess their steady-state performance when lubricated with an oil. It was found that the steady-state performance of both types of helical groove bearing is not as good as that of the plain bearing. Of the two helical groove bearings tested, the asymmetrical bearing proved to be a more energy efficient than the symmetrical bearing.