Abstract
Prof. Osborne Reynolds’ theoretical analysis of Beauchamp Tower’s researches on journal bearings proved the necessity for a convergent wedge-shaped oil film between journal and bearing surfaces in order to create useful load-carrying pressures in the oil film. Michell and Kingsbury working independently applied Reynolds’ theory to the development, notably of thrust bearings, and incidentally of radial bearings, with surfaces divided into tilting pads which created a multiplicity of convergent oil films instead of the single convergent film naturally present in an ordinary plain journal bearing. Later Wallgren brought out another form of pivoted-pad radial bearing, in which the pads rotate with the shaft. The multiple-oil-film radial bearing discussed in this paper accomplishes the foregoing without recourse to the use of pivoted shoes or pads. The flexing of the continuous block-sleeve-bearing member under load provides a multiplicity of wedge-shaped oil-film boundaries which create shearing stresses in the circulating oil and produce useful load-carrying pressures in the oil films. Careful tests have been conducted on the multiple-oil-film radial bearing under different conditions of speed, load, and oil viscosity, in order to determine its operating characteristics. The paper summarizes and discusses these test data.