Numerical Study of a Journal Bearing with Scratches: Validation with Literature and Comparison with Experimental Data

The lifespan of journal bearings is directly related to the operating conditions they have to face and reducing their maintenance intervals allows one to have a clear idea about their performance when issues occur. The presence of scratches on one of its surfaces degrades the performance of a journal bearing. These effects have already been assessed in experiments; however, numerical studies on this subject are still scarce. This work develops a numerical thermohydrodynamic (THD) program using the finite volume method to simulate the effects of scratches on the performance of journal bearings. To test the validity of the program, the numerical results are compared with the scientific literature and with experimental measurements conducted using the Pprime Institute journal bearing test rig. Some minor discrepancies are observed, but the overall results are in good agreement.