Investigation on inner flow field characteristics of groove textures in fully lubricated thrust bearings

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the inner flow field characteristics of groove textures in thrust bearings. Cavitation and vortex are studied simultaneously to enrich the theories of surface texture. Design/methodology/approach Navier–Stokes equations are solved using computational fluid dynamics. The MIXTURE model is adopted to study the gas–liquid mixture flow under the cavitation condition. Findings Re number, the depth ratio as well as the area ratio of the groove texture and the bottom shape are all influencing factors of the inner flow field characteristics. When cavitation region and vortex region occupy the bottom of the groove texture, these do not overlap because of the pressure gradient. The positive pressure gradient in the non-cavitation region introduces nonlinearity into the velocity profiles, which affects the load-carrying capacity and friction. Originality/value Cavitation and vortex are studied simultaneously only in this study. The characteristics of the textured thrust bearing can be analyzed and explained with the combined effect of cavitation and vortex.