CFD analysis of hydrodynamic journal bearing with bionic strip-shaped texture at bearing surface: a two-dimensional study

Purpose Using textures on the surface of a bearing has been demonstrated to be effective for enhancing the tribological performance of hydrodynamic journal bearings. However, the effects of bionic textures under cavitating conditions using Navier–Stokes-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and their performance over a wide range of eccentricity ratios are not sufficiently explored in the literature. The geometry of texture adopted in the present study is inspired by the surface morphology of an earthworm head. The present study aims tonumerically investigate the effect of surface texturing in different circumferential zones of a 2D bearing. The texture zone, which improves the performance parameters, is further analyzed for different eccentricity ratios over a wide eccentricity ratio (ε) range of 0.2–0.9 at a constant journal speed of 48.1 rad/s. Design/methodology/approach The Navier–Stokes equations are solved in ANSYS Fluent using the finite volume approach coupled with a two-phase cavitation model (Zwart–Gerber model), and performance parameters such as load-carrying capacity (LCC), friction force (FF) and the coefficient of friction are evaluated. Findings The result shows that placing textures in high-pressure regions improves the LCC by 2.84% relative to the plain bearing at ε = 0.61. Further analysis reveals that, apart from texture disposition, eccentricity ratio significantly affects the performance parameters. In comparison with the plain bearing, LCC increases by 9.01%, and FF and friction coefficient decrease by 1.24% and 9.40%, respectively, at an eccentricity ratio of 0.8. However, performance deterioration is observed at very low (ε = 0.2) and very high (ε = 0.9) eccentricity ratios. Originality/value This study highlights the significant role of texture disposition and demonstrates that bionic strip-shaped textures can provide consistent tribological improvements over an optimal operating range of the eccentricity ratio (ε = 0.4–0.8) under cavitating conditions, offering quantitative design guidelines for textured journal bearings.