Numeric and experimental study of generalized geometrical design of a hydrodynamic journal bearing based on the general film thickness equation

This paper deals with multi-objective shape optimization related to the geometrical design of a hydrodynamic journal bearing. The aim proposed here is to show that optimum shape design with better performance could surpass the limitations of existing bearing profiles. Attempting to remove the difficulty of selecting the weighting factor in multi-objective journal bearing optimization problems, a modified non-dominant sort in genetic algorithm was used as an optimization tool with a penalty to those solutions that violate constraints. Three kinds of optimized shapes were manufactured and taken as experimental objects. Experimental apparatus was described and some experimental data was presented. The comparison was made for the optimized bearings between numeric values and experimental data. The results show that the new method for shape optimization of hydrodynamic journal bearings based on the general film thickness equation is feasible.