Multiple-support shafts with journal bearings: A simulation and evaluation of their performance

Abstract

As the most common example of multiple-support shafts, the crankshaft of a multicylinder internal combustion engine (ICE) resting on the supports with journal bearings operating in steady-state regimes under the conditions of hydrodynamic lubrication has been considered. It has been taken into account that the supports can be deformed elastically causing a bending of the shaft, the deviation of shaft journals, and the change in the working conditions of the bearings up to the occurrence of the regime of mixed lubrication. Methods of estimating the performance of the tribosystem have been described.