Thermogas- and thermohydrodynamic simulation of thrust and slider bearings: Convergence and efficiency of different reduction approaches

The pressure and temperature distribution in gas thrust and oil slider bearings are described by the generalized Reynolds equation according to Dowson and the 3D energy equation. In this paper, two different approaches are presented in order to reduce the dimension of the governing nonlinear integrodifferential equation system and in order to stabilize the solution process. In the first reduction approach, the temperature in the fluid is averaged across the fluid film according to Lee and Kim. In the second approach, Legendre polynomials are used to approximate temperature, density and fluidity across the fluid film. The reduction techniques are compared with respect to numerical efficiency, accuracy and convergence behavior. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.