Oil film analysis of swash plate/slipper pair based on CFD

The 3-D Navier-Stokes equations and arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method are firstly used to present the oil film analysis method based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which can describe the correlation among slipper structure parameters, running conditions and oil film thickness. Then, the oil film thicknesses of a slipper bearing under 24 different running conditions are obtained by simulation method. A function is consequently obtained based on the simulation results, which can express the relationships between running conditions (temperature, rotation speed, and outlet preesure) and oil film thickness. Furthermore, an equation of hydraulic dynamic parameter is provided and used to express the oil film thickness analytically. Based on the CFD simulation results, the parameter is proven to be only related with the oil viscosity (temperature) under fixed design structure, and unrelated with other running conditions, such as rotation, pressure, and so on. It is convenient for designer to derive the oil film thickness expression equation. Finally, we compared the oil film thicknesses obtained from analytical and CFD methods, and the results show that the presented method is feasible.