Thermally Induced Seizure in Journal Bearings During Startup and Transient Flow Disturbance

This paper presents a finite element model that describes the thermomechanical interactions of a journal bearing undergoing thermally induced seizure (TIS). Two Categories of TIS are studied; the first part deals with occurrence of seizure during the start-up period followed by an investigation of TIS due to a transient flow-disturbance. The paper outlines the finite element modeling and analysis procedure involved in simulating TIS. An extensive set of parametric simulations covering load, speed, shaft radius, operating clearance, bearing length, friction coefficient and thermal expansion coefficient are performed to gain insight into the phenomenon of TIS. A statistical procedure is applied to the simulated results and an empirical relationship is derived. Good agreement between the empirical and published results attests to the capability of the model and its potential for predicting thermally induced seizure during system start up and during flow disturbance.