Thermo-elasto-hydrodynamic (TEHD) analysis of oil film lubrication in big end bearing of a diesel engine

Abstract

Nowadays, due to the increasing power of diesel engines, especially heavy duty diesel engines, and increasing gas pressure inside the combustion chamber, the forces acting on the engine bearings have dramatically raised. On the other hand, becaus eof the competition in the market, it is necessary to increase the engine bearing life and reduce its failure as much as possible. The engine bearings analysis is a vital issue in engine design process as well as other related engineering tasks such as engine power upgrading, reverse designing, and bearing failure analysis. So, many attempts have been made to simulate accurate engine bearings. In this paper, results of a thermo-elasto-hydrodynamic (TEHD) analysis of a connecting rod big end (BE) bearing of a heavy duty diesel engine are presented. Here, the oil film viscosity is considered a function of oil's local temperature and pressure. Effects of flexibility of bearing shell and connecting rod structure are also considered. Therefore, the computed oil film pressure and temperature distributions are relatively precise. In the proposed analytical procedure, at first, elasto-hydrodynamic (EHD) analysis is carried out and the averaged fluid velocity in the bearing is obtained. Then, the averaged heat transfer coefficient between oil film and crank pin is calculated, which is used as an input in TEHD analysis. Results of EHD and TEHD analyses are compared with each other and the main characteristic parameters in bearing design are reported and interpreted.