Magnetic fluid-based squeeze film between porous rotating rough circular plates

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study and analyze the effect of roughness and magnetic fluid lubricant on the performance of the squeeze film formed when the upper plate with a porous facing approaches an impermeable and flat lower plate by considering the rotation of the plates. Design/methodology/approach - The roughness of the bearing surface is modeled by a stochastic random variable with non-zero mean, variance and skewness. The associated Reynolds' equation is stochastically averaged with respect to the random roughness parameter. Results for bearing performance characteristics such as load-carrying capacity and response time for various values of mean, standard deviation and measure of symmetry are numerically computed. The results are presented graphically as well as in tabular form. Findings - It is observed that the bearing suffers owing to the transverse surface roughness. However, negatively skewed roughness may enhance the performance of the bearing system for suitable values of variance. It is also seen that rotation decreases the load-carrying capacity but it has marginal influence in the presence of the magnetic fluid. Further, the performance of the bearing system registers a steady improvement with the increasing values of the magnetization parameter. In addition, the response time follows the trends of the load-carrying capacity. Originality/value - The originality of the paper lies in the fact that the roughness must be accounted for while designing the bearing system, even though a suitable rotation ratio parameter is chosen in the presence of a strong magnetic fluid. Of course, the best performance of the bearing system is registered in the case of negatively skewed roughness.