This paper studies the experimental and numerical development of flow patterns and pressure profiles inside a variable depth pocket of a hydrostatic journal bearing. The parameters used in this study consist of the pockets aspect ratio, restrictor inlet conditions and shaft velocity. The investigation will be conducted at both low and high shaft rotational speeds. The flow visualization method uses a full flow field tracking Lagrangian method to track microsphere particles injected in the main stream of pocket’s feedline and thus reconstruct the flow pattern in the pocket. A high intensity pulsed laser is used to create a thin sheet of light that locates and illuminate the particles in a plane, while a long distance microscope (LDM) video camera is used to record digitally the flow images.
The experimental endeavor is supplemented by a numerical simulation which uses CFD-ACE+ (of ESI Corporation, Huntsville, AL) as the computational engine. This package utilizes the full three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations applied for a steady-state incompressible Newtonian fluid with constant properties flowing in a hydrostatic pocket. The results offered herein present both numerical velocity vector and pressure fields and experimental qualitative flow patterns for the shallow and deep pockets.