Nanofluids for Performance Improvement of Heavy Machinery Journal Bearings: A Simulation Study

Abstract

Nanofluids have extensive applications in hydrodynamic journal bearings used in heavy industry machinery. Inorganic fullerene-like tungsten disulfide nanoparticles (IF-WS2 NPs) are the most common additive for lubrication purpose due to their excellent mechanical characteristics along with their effect on reducing friction and wear. In this work, a computational simulation approach with discrete phase modeling (DPM) of suspended nanoparticles was used to evaluate the application of the IF-WS2 nanofluid lubricant on load carrying capacity of high-load journal bearings where the normal loads are high, considering the bearing dimensions. For accurate simulation, nanofluid viscosity was calculated considering the aggregation effect of NPs by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging of the nanofluids. A benchmark study was first performed to assess the model accuracy. Hydrodynamic lubrication was simulated under different nanofluid weigh fractions. The simulated pressure distribution was then employed to determine the load capacity of the bearing. The results show an approximately 20% improvement of load carrying capacity at 5% weight fraction of WS2-oil nanofluid.

Application of nanofluids on various performance characteristics of hydrodynamic journal bearing—A review

“…The results in Supplemental Figure 11 show that the load capacity ratio is improved by increasing the weight fraction of nanofluid and in the case of 5% weight 35 fraction of WS 2 nanofluid, the load-carrying capacity is increased by 20%. 37 TiO 2 nanoparticles sized 40 nm are used as lubricant additives to test sliding and elliptical bearing performance. The effect of TiO 2 additives on the performance of the sliding bearings such as oil film temperature rise, frictional force, side leakage, oil flow rate, power loss, attitude angle, load-carrying capacity, and pressure distribution is analyzed to show that the anti-slip and anti-wear properties of lubricants used with additives from TiO 2 nanoparticles are improved.…”

“…The results in Supplemental Figure 11 show that the load capacity ratio is improved by increasing the weight fraction of nanofluid and in the case of 5% weight fraction of WS 2 nanofluid, the load-carrying capacity is increased by 20%. 37…”

“…8 Many research has added the mechanisms of nanoparticles added lubricant. 1,6–40 Although there may be no mounted theory, the mechanisms behind the reduction of friction were advised to be the protective film, colloidal effect, mending effect, rolling effect, and third body material transfer. Under extreme situations of excessive load and temperature, the nanoparticles added in lubricants bring together and shape clusters that keep their spherical characteristics although they agglomerate.…”

Reconfigurable Modular Platform for Prolonged Sensing of Toxic Gases in Particle Polluted Environments

“…For the modeling of suspended particle pollutions in the air, discrete phase modeling (DPM) of particles was used in a fully coupled condition to ensure that the interactions between the flow and particles were considered. DPM consists of spherical particles uniformly dispersed in the continuous phase [29]. For optimization of the spiral fluidics, multiple designs with various parameters have been modeled.…”

Effect of Nanoparticle on the Performance of Water Lubricated Journal Bearing

“…Numerous authors have worked on hydrodynamic journal bearings and their performance characteristics. To name a few, Jamalabadi et al [6] used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Thermohydrodynamic (THD) to simulate and observe how nanoparticles affected the behaviour characteristics of plain journal bearings, Sadabadi and Nezhad [7] used Discrete Phase Modelling (DPM) of nano material in lubricating fluid to study the effect of inorganic fullerene, WS2 on the load withstanding capability of the bearing designed for high loads. Kulkarni et al [8] theoretically analysed the effect of axial magnetic field and a radial electric field on the stability of a fixed rotor held on MHD journal bearings by considering Routhe's criteria of stability.…”