Improved performance of hydrodynamic bearings by proactive adjustment

There has been a number of initiatives launched in the field of lubrication as potential sources of improvements in energy efficiency in a wide range of engineering products, plant and processes. Attention is being focussed on bearings to improve both performance and efficiency in fields such as automotive, machine tools, industrial and power generation plant. This paper reviews some of the background to these drives and illustrates how a novel design of adjustable fluid film hydrodynamic journal type bearing shows promise to both improve performance and save energy. Theoretical modelling and practical tests have demonstrated clear improvements over conventional fluid film bearings, along with a number of other characteristics offering benefits that may be of interest to designers and users of such bearings.