Performance analysis of a new design concept of journal bearing with surface roughness

The current mechanical industries rely heavily on automatic machinery, which is generally of the rotating variety. These machines must frequently run at high speeds and under large loads for extended periods. To do this, engineers must create machines with increased load-bearing capacity, decreased friction, and lower noise levels. This study aims to investigate the performance of modified bearing including the generated noise. This bearing represents a new concept of contacting surface by introducing the roughness which is partially applied on the stationary surface of the bearing. An objective of this study is to study a possible alternative to conventional bearing, with the aim of reducing the bearing noise and improving the load support without compromising friction. The performance assessment is conducted using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) varying the surface roughness level. The computational simulations confirm that the proposed modified bearing can reduce the bearing noise, enhance the load support and decrease the friction significantly.