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Two-phase lubrication characteristics of journal bearing in refrigerant-oil system under high-pressure environment considering gaseous cavitation.

Author(s) : WANG C., ZHONG H., LEI B., WU J.

Type of article: IJR article

Summary

The journal-bearing system is crucial for the reliability of refrigerant compressors that operate under high-ambient-pressure environments. The pressure changes rapidly, which hereby results in the variation in solubility of refrigerant in oil, and causes gaseous cavitation of the refrigerant-oil mixture in the bearing. However, the cavitation mechanism under high-pressure environments is not well understood, and its impact on lubrication characteristics has been rarely discussed. In this paper, a numerical model is developed to simultaneously solve the gaseous cavitation and two-phase lubrication problems. The first systematic comparison of lubrication characteristics for constant-eccentricity journal bearings, in such a special environment, between the classical Reynolds boundary and gaseous cavitation boundary is presented. Results indicate the load-carrying capacity is reduced by about 3% at a lower eccentricity of 0.3, but is greatly enhanced by about 21% at a higher eccentricity of 0.9 due to the gaseous cavitation. Meanwhile, the ‘reverse’ flow rate is found to reach -0.057 at the end side of the bearing owing to sub-ambient pressure up to -1 MPa at the eccentricity of 0.8. The cavitation-induced sub-ambient pressure should be addressed for the design of the bearing operating in such pressurized refrigerant environments as ambient gas might be sucked into the bearing.

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Pages: 253-263

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Details

  • Original title: Two-phase lubrication characteristics of journal bearing in refrigerant-oil system under high-pressure environment considering gaseous cavitation.
  • Record ID : 30032129
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Technology
  • Source: International Journal of Refrigeration - Revue Internationale du Froid - vol. 158
  • Publication date: 2024/02
  • DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2023.12.001

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