Heshmat, H. “Starved Bearing Technology: Theory and Experiment.” Ph.D. Thesis, Mechanical Engineering Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, December 1988.
As a means of increasing the understanding of starved bearing behavior, a theoretical and experimental investigation was conducted. this dissertation describes using developments in free boundary problems analysis and extending them to include temperature effects in starved journal bearings. The dissertation also discusses the related technology development effort.
To fulfill the technological needs, the following theoretical and experimental investigation was conducted on the behavior of oil rings and on the performance of journal bearings, for bearing sizes ranging from 3 in. to 12 in. in diameter for conditions ranging from full hydrodynamic lubrication to a state of extreme lubricant starvation.
The oil delivery of oil rings was experimentally determined, since it is a necessary piece of information required before baring behavior could be estimated; in addition, the characteristics of rings through several regimes of operation were determined up to journal speeds at which the ring becomes unstable and oil delivery ceases. A parametric study of ring weight, size, shape, tooth depth and orientation, as well as ring material, yielded an optimum ring configuration from the standpoint of maximum oil delivery to the bearing.