Investigation on an experimental approach to evaluate a wear model for hydrodynamic cylindrical bearings

This work aims to investigate and identify the wear parameters in cylindrical hydrodynamic bearings, an inherent problem due to repeated use of rotating machinery, accentuated in starts/stops or during the crossover of resonance. Thereby, a mathematical model to represent the wear in terms of its main parameters is used, namely, the maximum depth, the angular span and the angular position. The pressure distribution and the hydrodynamic forces generated by the oil film are numerically obtained, properly adapted for discontinuous oil film. The rotor model is represented by finite element method and the bearings are approximated by dynamic coefficients of stiffness and damping. The evaluation and identification of the wear parameters is taken from the unbalanced frequency response of the rotor-bearing system in directional coordinates.