Evaluation of inertia effect in finite hydrodynamic bearings with surface texturing using spectral element solver

•Spectral element solver for 3-D hydrodynamic bearings with texturing was developed.•Using the solver, inertia effect was investigated for 90 bearing configurations.•Partial texturing was found to substantially reduce the effect (by up to 85%).•The effect decreased with increasing ratio of dimple length to dimple depth.•The effect increased with increasing Reynolds number.

Fluid inertia can have a major effect on the pressure distribution in hydrodynamic bearings with surface texturing. So far, however, the effect has been ignored in the simulation of finite bearings. In this work, we develop a spectral element solver for the Navier–Stokes equations specifically tailored to slider finite bearings textured with multiple spherical dimples. Using the solver, we studied the effect of inertia on the load-carrying capacity for 90 different bearing configurations. Our results show that the spatial arrangement of dimples has a significant impact on the inertia effect. For the Reynolds number 50 and the ratio 10 of dimple length to dimple depth, a change from full to partial texturing reduced the effect by roughly 85%.