Probability of Face Contact for a High-Speed Pressurised Liquid Film Bearing Including a Slip Boundary Condition

An initial deterministic mathematical model for the dynamic motion of a simple pressurised liquid film bearing is derived and utilised to evaluate the possibility of bearing contact for thin film operation. For a very thin film bearing the flow incorporates a Navier slip boundary condition as parametrised by a slip length that in general is subject to significant variability and is difficult to determine with precision. This work considers the formulation of a modified Reynolds equation for the pressurised liquid flow in a highly rotating coned bearing. Coupling of the axial motion of the stator is induced by prescribed axial oscillations of the rotor through the liquid film. The bearing gap is obtained from solving a nonlinear second-order non-autonomous ordinary differential equation, via a mapping solver. Variability in the value of the slip length parameter is addressed by considering it as a random variable with prescribed mean and standard deviation. The method of derived distributions is used to exactly quantify the impact of variability in the slip length with a parametric study investigating the effect of both the deterministic and distribution parameters on the probability of contact. Additionally, as the axial rotor oscillations also have a random aspect due to possible varying excitations of the system, the probability of contact is investigated for both random amplitude of the periodic rotor oscillations and random slip length, resulting in a two parameter random input problem. The probability of contact is examined to obtain exact solutions and evaluate a range of bearing configurations.