Numerical Bifurcation Analysis of a Film Flowing over a Patterned Surface through Enhanced Lubrication Theory

The bifurcation analysis of a film falling down an hybrid surface is conducted via the numerical solution of the governing lubrication equation. Instability phenomena, that lead to film breakage and growth of fingers, are induced by multiple contamination spots. Contact angles up to 75∘ are investigated due to the full implementation of the free surface curvature, which replaces the small slope approximation, accurate for film slope lower than 30∘. The dynamic contact angle is first verified with the Hoffman–Voinov–Tanner law in case of a stable film down an inclined plate with uniform surface wettability. Then, contamination spots, characterized by an increased value of the static contact angle, are considered in order to induce film instability and several parametric computations are run, with different film patterns observed. The effects of the flow characteristics and of the hybrid pattern geometry are investigated and the corresponding bifurcation diagram with the number of observed rivulets is built. The long term evolution of induced film instabilities shows a complex behavior: different flow regimes can be observed at the same flow characteristics under slightly different hybrid configurations. This suggest the possibility of controlling the rivulet/film transition via a proper design of the surfaces, thus opening the way for relevant practical application.

Influence of new surface micro-structures on the performance behaviours of fluid film tilting pad thrust bearings

Performance parameters such as power loss, minimum film thickness, and maximum oil temperature of the sector-shaped tilting pad thrust bearings employing the new micro-structural geometries on pad surfaces have been investigated. The lubrication equation incorporating the mass-conservation issue is discretized using the finite element method and the solution of resulting algebraic equations is obtained employing a Newton-Schur method. The pad equilibrium in the analysis is established using the Newton-Raphson and Braydon methods. The influence of attributes of micro-structures such as depth, circumferential and radial positioning extents have been explored on the performance behaviours. It is found that with the new micro-structured pad surfaces, the performance parameters significantly improved in comparison to conventional plain and conventional rectangular pocketed pads.

Secondary instability in thin film flows under an inclined plane: growth of lenses on spatially developing rivulets

The response of a thin film flowing under an inclined plane, modelled using the lubrication equation, is studied. The flow at the inlet is perturbed by the superimposition of a spanwise-periodic steady modulation and a decoupled temporally periodic but spatially homogeneous perturbation. As the consequence of the spanwise inlet forcing, the so-called rivulets grow downstream and eventually reach a streamwise-invariant state, modulated along the direction perpendicular to the flow. The linearized dynamics in the presence of a time-harmonic inlet forcing shows the emergence of a time-periodic flow characterized by drop-like structures (so-called lenses) that travel on the rivulet. The spatial evolution is rationalized by a weakly non-parallel stability analysis. The occurrence of the lenses, their spacing and thickness profile, is controlled by the inclination angle, flow rate, and the frequency and amplitude of the time-harmonic inlet forcing. The faithfulness of the linear analyses is verified by nonlinear simulations. The results of the linear simulations with inlet forcing are combined with the computations of nonlinear travelling lenses solutions in a double-periodic domain to obtain an estimate of the dripping length, for a large range of conditions.

A lubrication equation for a simplified model of shear-thinning fluid

A lubrication equation is obtained for a simplified shear-thinning fluid. The simplified rheology consists of a piecewise linear stress tensor, resulting in a two-viscosity model. This can be interpreted as a modified Bingham fluid, which can be recovered in a specific limit. The lubrication equation is obtained in two steps. First two scalings are performed on the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, namely the long-wave scaling and the slow motion scaling. Second, the resulting equations are averaged along the vertical direction. Numerical illustrations are provided, bringing to light the different possible behaviours.

Fluid Permeation Through A Membrane With Infinitesimal Permeability Under Reynolds Lubrication

ABSTRACTTo understand the lubrication-dominated permeation through a membrane, numerical simulations of permeation through a moving corrugated permeable membrane is carried out with a fully validated numerical method. Through comparisons between the numerical results and the results of an asymptotic analysis of permeate flux (under an infinitesimal permeability condition) using Reynolds lubrication equation, the effect of permeation on lubrication and its inverse effect (i.e., the dependence of permeation on lubrication) are discussed. The linear and non-linear dependences of the relaxation of the lubrication pressure due to membrane permeation are identified. The effect of the tangential component of the permeate flux is evaluated by a linear analysis, and the limitation of Reynolds-type lubrication is discussed.

Research on Turbulent Lubrication of Misaligned Journal Bearing Considering the Axial Motion of Journal

Based on the coordinate transformation method, the generalized turbulent lubrication equation considering the axial motion of the journal is derived. The finite-difference method is used to solve the generalized turbulent lubrication equation. The variations of turbulent lubrication performance with axial displacement for different axial movement velocity of the journal, journal misalignment angle, and initial mid-plane eccentricity ratio are obtained. The results show that when the axial movement velocity of the journal increases, the mid-plane eccentricity ratio of the bearing and the minimum film thickness remain unchanged, the average Reynolds number, maximum film pressure, load capacity, frictional power, and side leakage increases. As the axial displacement of the journal increases, the greater the misalignment angle of the journal, the greater the degree of misalignment, maximum film pressure, load capacity, and misalignment moment of the bearing. The greater the initial mid-plane eccentricity ratio, the greater the degree of journal misalignment, maximum film pressure, load capacity, frictional power, and misalignment moment.

Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis of Wear Property for MEMS Gas Bearing

In this study, the sensitivity of MEMS gas bearing’ performance to the wear in different axial and circumferential positions is investigated in detail. Rarefaction effect is introduced into the transient and steady lubrication equation, and then the finite element method (FEM) is employed to solve the equations. The stochastic process is adopted to simulate wear distribution and view of probability is proposed to describe the change laws of the static and dynamic performance of the bearing. Then, the static and dynamic characteristics of the bearing in 50 wear conditions are calculated for each case. Furthermore, the standard deviations and correlation coefficients of the bearing performance sample points are analyzed to demonstrate the influence degree of wear in different positions.