The influences of longitudinal surface roughness on sub-critical and super-critical limit cycles of short journal bearings

By applying the stochastic model of rough surfaces by Christensen (1969–1970, 1971) [1] and [2] together with the Hopf bifurcation theory by Hassard et al. (1981) [3], the present study is mainly concerned with the influences of longitudinal roughness patterns on the linear stability regions, Hopf bifurcation regions, sub-critical and super-critical limit cycles of short journal bearings. It is found that the longitudinal rough-surface bearings can exhibit Hopf bifurcation behaviors in the vicinity of bifurcation points. For fixed bearing parameter, the effects of longitudinal roughness structures provide an increase in the linear stability region, as well as a reduction in the size of sub-critical and super-critical limit cycles as compared to the smooth-bearing case.