Vol. 14, No.

4 (2014) 1411-1420

International Journal of
Engineering Science Reviews
www.ijesr.hol.es

Research Article

On the Steady Performance of Externally Pressurized Spherical

and Conical Bearings: Rabinowitsch Fluid Model
Udaya P. Singh

Ansal Technical Campus, Lucknow, India

Keywords:
Hydrostatic Bearings;
Hydrostatic Lubrication; LoadCarrying Capacity; Rabinowitsch
Fluid Model.

Corresponding author:
Udaya P. Singh
a Ansal Technical Campus, Lucknow,
India
E-mail: journals4phd@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
In many practical situations the lubricants are normally blended with
additives (viscosity index improvers, viscosity thickeners, viscosity
thinners) due to which they no longer behave like Newtonian lubricants
and show Pseudoplastic or Dilatant nature. A separate study of these types
of lubricants with additives is therefore necessary. Such types of lubricants
can be modeled as Cubic stress Model (Rabinowitsch Model). The present
theoretical analysis is to investigate the Pseudoplastic effect along with
the effects of inertia on the pressure distribution, load carrying capacity
and fluid flow rate of externally pressurized spherical and conical
bearings. The expression for pressure has been derived using Energy
Integral Approach. The load carrying capacity and frictional torque of the
bearing have also been numerically calculated for various values of
viscosity index improver using a parameter .
2014 Published by IJESR

Received July 17, 2014

Revised September 21 2014

1. INTRODUCTION
In many practical lubrication applications, the
classical Newtonian theory is not a satisfactory
engineering approach. Experiments show that
the addition of small amounts of long-chained
polymer additives to a Newtonian fluid can
produce desirable lubricants. Such lubricants
behave as non-Newtonian Pseudoplastic,
Dilatant and Viscoelastic fluids according to the
nature and quantity of additives. The author, in
its paper (Singh et. al [1]), has emphasized the
effect of Pseudoplasticity on lubrication
characteristics has recently taken on added
significance and also discussed the effects of the
viscosity index improvers (Pseudoplasticity) on
the various properties of hydrostatic thrust
bearings. In recent years, tribologists have done

Accepted October 5, 2014

a great deal of work to increase the efficiency of

stabilizing properties of non-Newtonian
lubricants by addition of small amounts of long
chain polymer solutions such as Polyisobutylene
and Ethylene propylene etc. The use of additives
minimizes the sensitivity of the lubricant to the
change in the shearing strain rate. Further, the
viscosity of these lubricants exhibits a non-linear
relationship between the shearing stress and
shearing strain rate. In last few decades, the
rheological effects of non-Newtonian lubricants
based on different fluid models like Power Law
and Couple Stress fluid model have been studied
for the performance characteristics of Journal,
Squeeze film, Annular disks and Externally
Pressurized
bearings.
The
theoretical
investigation of the problems of bearing
lubrication and its performance using Non1411

Udaya P. Singh, IJESR, Vol. 14, Issue. 04 (2014) 1411-1420

Newtonian lubricants was done by Giannikos

and Buckholz [2] for Elastic bearings with NonNewtonian Power Law fluids, Khonsari and
Brewe [3] for Journal bearing with Micropolar
fluids, Serangi et al.[4] for Ball bearing with
Couple Stress fluid. The analysis of bearings
performance with Pseudoplastic fluids was done
by Savins[5] for flow in stationary pipes,
Cross[6] generating a new flow equation,
Hanks[7] for flow in concentric annuls, Shukla
et al. [8] and Hasmimoto et al. [9] on squeeze
films, Usha and Vimla [10] on Squeeze film
bearings and the analysis
of externally
pressurized bearings was done by and Lin[11]
on plane stepped plate bearing with couple
stress model, Walicka and Falicki[12,13] and
Jurczak et al.[14] on flow in the clearance
between the two curvilinear surfaces of
revolution with Casson and HerschelBulkley
and Couple Stress fluid models. But the problem
of externally pressurized spherical and conical
bearings considering the inertia effect using
Pseudoplastic fluid - Rabinowitsch fluid model
to establish the non-linear relationship between
the shearing stress and shearing strain rate is
yet to be considered.
In the Rabinowitsch Fluid Model, the following
empirical relation holds for one dimensional
fluid flow:
u
xz xz 3
(1)
z
where is the zero shear rate viscosity, is the
non-linear factor responsible for the nonNewtonian effects of the fluid which will be
referred to as coefficient of Pseudoplasticity in
this paper. This model can be applied to
Newtonian lubricants for, to Dilatant lubricants
for , and to Pseudoplastic lubricants for . The
experimental analysis of this model for the
lubricants for Journal bearing has been justified
by Wada and Hayashi [15] indicating the film
pressure and load capacity for these lubricants is
smaller than those of the Newtonian fluids.
Afterwards, the theoretical study of bearing
performance with non-Newtonian lubricants
using this model was done by Bourging & Gay
[16] on Journal bearing, Hsu and Saibel [17] and
Lin [18] on slider bearing, Hashmimoto and
Wada [9] on circular plates bearing, Hung [19]
on infinitely wide parallel rectangular plates and
Singh et al. [1] on hydrostatic thrust bearings.
However,
the
problem
of
isothermal,

1412

incompressible laminar flow lubricant for

externally pressurized spherical and conical
bearings taking into account the Rabinowitsch
fluid model is yet to be considered.
In the present paper, effects of Pseudoplasticity
and inertia in the externally pressurized
spherical and conical bearings have been
investigated using Rabinowitsch Fluid Model.
Since, the problem is of non-linear nature in its
theoretical investigation, the Energy Integral
Approach presented by Elkouh [20] and
established by Kapur and Verma [21] is used to
calculate the pressure, load capacity.
2. CONSTITUTIVE EQUATIONS AND
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
The physical configuration of externally
pressurized flow in the clearance between two
curvilinear surfaces of revolution is shown in
Fig. 1. The radius of revolution of outer surface
is r ( x) and the clearance between the two
surfaces of revolution is h . In the Fig. 1, an
intrinsic curvilinear orthogonal coordinate
system x , , z is also shown. The lubricant in
the system is taken as non-Newtonian. The body
forces and body couples are assumed to be
absent. Under the assumptions of hydrodynamic
lubrication applicable to thin film as considered
by Pinkus & Sternlitch [22], Cameron [23] and
the assumptions of thin films in curvilinear
coordinate used and discussed by Jurczak et
al.[14], the field equations governing the one
dimensional motion of an incompressible nonNewtonian fluid - Rabinowitsch fluid model in
curvilinear co-ordinate system are :
1

[ r ( x )u ] 0
r ( x ) x
v2
zx p
u

r '( x ) u
r ( x)
x
z
x

(2)
(3)

2
v
(4)
0
2
z
p
0
(5)
z
where r '( x ) is the derivative of r ( x ) with respect

to x .
The equations (2) - (4) are solved under the
following boundary conditions :
u0
at z 0, h
(6)
v0
at
(7)
z 0

International Journal of Engineering Science Reviews, Vol. 14, No. 04 (2014) 1411-1420
v r ( x )

p po
p0

zh
at x xo
at x xR
at

(8)
(9)
Figure 1: Schematic diagram of curvilinear clearance between two
surfaces of revolution

(10)
where are the velocity components of flow as
shown in Figure 1, is the angular velocity of
inner surface, is density of fluid, p is film
pressure between bearing surfaces and xz is
shearing stress.
Introducing the dimensionless quantities
x

xR
p

x
xo o ,
xR

h
u

po

u
R

,v

p h
o ,
R

r ( x)

r ( x)

R
, zx zx ,
R
po h
v

3 2
3 R

20 po xR

R
po h

the field equations, equation (1) to equation (5),

are transformed to
1

( r ( x )u ) 0
r ( x ) x
2
zx
p 20 v
u

s
r '( x ) u
x
z
x 3 r ( x)

2
v
0
2
z
P
0
z
u
3
zx zx
z

(11)
(12)

(13)
(14)
(15)

and the related boundary conditions (6) to (8)

takes the form :
at z 0,1
(16)
u0
at
(17)
v0
z 0
v r ( x)
at
(18)
z 1

p 1
p0

at
at

x xo
x 1

(19)
(20)

3 3 2 1
z z z
2
4
4

B( z )

(23)

From the continuity equation (11), the rate of

change of film pressure without inertia effect
can be approximated, in terms of radial flow
rate Q , as
1 p

6Q

162 Q

r ( x)

5 r ( x )3

(24)

where
Q

h po

Q,

and

h( x)
Q 2 r ( x ) udz
0

3. ANALYSIS

The pressure gradient

The solution for equation (12) satisfying the

equation (11) and the boundary conditions (16)
ignoring the inertia effects is

first term perturbation and it may no longer

work if the value of is larger or very close to
1. In that case, numerical procedure may be
applied to obtain the results.

1 p

p
A( z ) B( z )
2 x
x

(21)

where
2

A( z ) z z

(22)

is approximated using

Substituting the expression for

p
x

from

equation (24) in equation (21), velocity profile

for u without the inertia effect is as

1413

Udaya P. Singh, IJESR, Vol. 14, Issue. 04 (2014) 1411-1420

f ( x ) A( z ) { f ( x )}3 B( z )

(25)

where
f ( x)

6Q
r ( x)

162 Q

(26)

5 r ( x )3

The circumferential velocity can be found by

integrating the equation (13) under the
boundary conditions (17) and (18) as
v rz (27)
Multiply the equation (12) by and integrating
the resulting expression from z 0 to, the
following expression is obtained using Energy
Integral Method [20,21] :
1
P 40 1 2
2 r ( x ) (u f ( x ))dz Q

S {uv r '( x )}dz

x
3
0
0
(28)
40

u
2

s r ( x )u
3
x

Using the equations (25) (28), the rate of

change of modified pressure in x direction with
inertia effect is obtained as
1

r
(
x
)
f
(
x
)
g ( z ) dz

1
dP
1 20
2

sr '( x ) g ( z )v ( z ) dz

dx Q 3
0

S R r ( x) G '( x )

12

(29)

g ( z ) f ( x) A( z ) f ( x)3 B ( z )

(30)

the curvilinear bearing (as shown in Figure 1)

can be considered as the concentric spherical
surfaces shown in the Figure 3.
In this case, equation (27) becomes

2 1
4

sin 6 f ( ) 40 f ( )

f ( )

20
dp( )
1
s

2

cos sin
(32)
d
Q 2
13

f ( )

1680

S R sin G '( )

12
where
f ( )

6Q

sin

162
5

3
sin

(33)

3 3
5
140 f ( ) 1008 f ( )

G ( )
3

93 2
7
9
221760 f ( ) 49920 f ( )
(34)

where

The expression for pressure distribution can be

found by integration of the equation (32) under
boundary conditions
p ( ) 1

at

p ( ) 0

at

and
1

G '( x) g ( z )3 dz

(31)

From the equation (29) of pressure gradient

dP
dx

for

curvilinear

bearings,

the

cases

of

spherical and conical bearings can be deduced

and discussed as follows:
3.1 Spherical Bearings

Taking the following transformations of the

parameters
x 2
r ( x)
x

,
r ( x)
sin
xR
R
dr ( x )
dx

1414

cos

and

dp
dx

dp
2 d

Figure 3: Schematic diagram of externally pressurized

spherical bearing.

International Journal of Engineering Science Reviews, Vol. 14, No. 04 (2014) 1411-1420

3.2 Conical Bearings

Taking the following transformations of the

parameters
r ( x) xsin , ro xo sin ,
h =constant
clearance,
so that the dimensionless variables becomes
xo ro ,

x r ( x) r ,

r '( x) 1

and the curvilinear bearing (shown in Figure 1)

can be considered as the conical bearing shown
in the Figure 2.
With these simplifications, equation (27)
becomes

rf ( r ) 1 f ( r ) 1 f ( r ) 3

40
6

dp
1
13
2 1
3

s r
f (r )
f ( r ) (35)
dr
Q
1680
20

S r G '( r )

R
12

Figure 2: Schematic diagram of externally pressurized

conical bearing.

where
f (r )

6Q

162

Q
r

(36)

1 f (r )3 3 f (r )5
140

1008

93
7
2
(37)
G (r )
f (r )
221760

1
9
3

f (r )
49920

Integrating the equation (35) under boundary

conditions
at
p 1
r ro
p0

r 1
at
the expression for pressure distribution can
obtained.
4. FRICTIONAL TORQUE
The frictional torque of the bearing shown in
Figure 1 is given by following formula

xR

xo

2v
r ( x) 2 2 dx
z

(38)

The dimensionless frictional torque can be

evaluated as

where

1 r
4

po R xR h

(39)

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To study the non-Newtonian and fluid inertia
effects on the pressure, load carrying capacity,
frictional torque and flow rate of externally
pressurized spherical and conical bearings, the
numerical results for pressure and radial flow
rate have been obtained for the different values
of
parameter
of
Pseudoplasticity,

po h R

within the valid range of

convergence. Further, in order to improve the

practical applicability of the problem, the value
of Pseudoplasticity parameter is taken within
0 0.04 based on the actual experimental
results of Wada & Hayashi [14] for coefficient of
Pseudoplasticity & viscosity and Coombs and
Dowson [24] for supply pressure po .
To obtain and analyze the numerical results for
pressure distribution, and flow rate and to avoid
the effect of cavitation and turbulence, the value
of inertia parameters S and S R are selected in
the range 0 S 0.3

and

spherical

and

bearings

1 SR 1.2 for
0 S 0.5 and

0.95 SR 1.05 for conical bearings.

(40)

1415

Udaya P. Singh, IJESR, Vol. 14, Issue. 04 (2014) 1411-1420

Figure 4: Variation of pressure p in spherical thrust

bearing with respect to angle for different values of
fluid constant , rotation parameter S and S R 1.

Figure 5: Variation of pressure p in conical thrust

Figure 4 and Figure 5 show the variation of

dimensionless pressure distribution of spherical
and conical bearings respectively for different
values of fluid parameter and inertia
parameter s . In both the cases of spherical and
conical bearings, it is observed that the pressure
for Pseudoplastic fluids ( > 0) is higher than
that with Newtonian fluids ( = 0) for every
value of parameters s . However, the pressure
distribution shows a small variation near the
supply hole as well as near the outer radius.
Moreover, the pressure for Pseudoplastic fluids
increases with the increase of the fluid
parameter . The pressure distribution also
decreases with the increase of the inertia
parameter s . The variation of pressure
distribution due to Pseudoplasticity is small in
the case of no rotation and the larger with the
higher rotation i.e. higher is the rotation, larger
is the variation of pressure due to
Pseudoplasticity. As the bearings are merely
operated at a high speed in practical situations,
the effect of Pseudoplastic fluids dominantly
increases the pressure distribution a result in
agreement with Singh et al. [1] and [14,15,17,19]
and consistent with the real situation of the
problem.

Figure 6 and Figure 7 show the variation of

dimensionless load carrying capacity of
spherical and conical bearings respectively for
fluid parameter and inertia parameters s and
SR . The variation of load capacity with.., of both
the spherical and conical bearings, agrees the
variation of pressure distribution with . The
load capacity for Pseudoplastic fluids ( > 0) is
higher than that with Newtonian fluids ( = 0)

1416

bearing with respect to r for different values of fluid

constant , rotation parameter S and S R 1.

for every value of parameters S and S R . The load

capacity of conical bearing shows very small
variation with for small values of S and the
variation increases with S . In the case of
spherical bearings, the effect of is higher for
higher values of S . The deviation is also
significant even if there is no rotation. The load
capacity also decreases with the increase of the
inertia parameters S and S R . The variation of
load capacity due to Pseudoplasticity is small in
the case small values of SR and larger with the
higher values of SR i.e. higher is the value of SR ,
larger is the variation of load capacity due to
Pseudoplasticity. The nature of the variation of
load capacity is again consistent with the
physical nature of the problem.

International Journal of Engineering Science Reviews, Vol. 14, No. 04 (2014) 1411-1420

Figure 6: Variation of load carrying capacity W of

spherical thrust bearing with respect to rotation
parameter s for different values of fluid constant and
inertia parameter sR .

Figure 8: Variation of fluid flow rate Q in spherical

thrust bearing with respect to rotation parameter s for
different values of fluid constant and inertia parameter
sR .

Figure 8 and Figure 9 show the variation of

dimensionless flow rate with respect to s in
spherical and conical bearings respectively for
different values of parameters and SR . The
flow rate increases with the rotational inertia
parameter S and decreases with inertia
parameter SR . The flow rate of Newtonian fluids

is higher than the flow rate with the

Pseudoplastic fluids 0 for each value of

and SR .
Figure 10 shows the variation of dimensionless
frictional torque with respect to parameter
R
2

Figure 7: Variation of load carrying capacity W of

conical thrust bearing with respect to rotation parameter
s for different values of fluid constant and inertia
parameter sR .

po h 2

. It is observed that, in both the

cases of spherical and conical bearings, the

frictional torque increases as increases. For
the present case, it can be interpreted that the
frictional torque increases with the increase of
rotational speed as well as the viscosity. Because
the viscosity of the Pseudoplastic lubricants (i.e.
the lubricants blended with the viscosity index
improver-viscosity thickener) is more than the
viscosity of Newtonian lubricant, the frictional
1417

Udaya P. Singh, IJESR, Vol. 14, Issue. 04 (2014) 1411-1420

torque with the Pseudoplastic lubricant will be

higher than the Newtonian case.

6. CONCLUSIONS
The Pseudoplastic effects of an isothermal
incompressible non-Newtonian lubricant on the
pressure distribution, load carrying capacity,
flow rate and frictional torque of spherical and
conical bearings, neglecting the cavitation
effects, are presented.
The Rabinowitsch fluid i.e. cubic equation model
is considered to derive the analytic expressions
of pressure using the Energy Integral Method.
The following conclusions are drawn
1. The
method
is
simpler
and
comprehensive because the formation of
Modified Reynolds equation can be
avoided.
2. Comparing with the Newtonian case, the
dimensionless film pressure distribution
with the Pseudoplastic lubricants is
higher. Further, with the increase of the
fluid parameter there is an increase in
the film pressure in both cases of
spherical and conical bearings.

Figure 9. Variation of fluid flow rate Q in conical thrust

bearing with respect to rotation parameter s for
different values of fluid constant and inertia parameter
sR .

3. The effect of Pseudoplasticity on the

Pressure distribution is small in the case
of no rotation and increases with the
rotation due to inertia effect.
4. The effect of fluid inertia sR increase the
load carrying capacity of the bearing.
5. The effect of Pseudoplasticity is
comparatively significant for pressure
distribution with large radius R due to
high inertia effect.
6. Flow rate decreases with the increase of
viscosity i.e. the effect of viscosity index
improver viscosity thickener decreases
the flow rate.
7. The frictional torque increases with the
increase in viscosity i.e. the effect of
viscosity index improver viscosity
thickener increases the frictional torque
and hence the frictional torque in
Pseudoplastic case is always higher than
the Newtonian case.

Figure 10. Variation of dimensionless frictional torque

with respect to parameter .

1418

Hence, the variation of pressure distribution is

dependent on the cubic stress nature of the
Pseudoplastic fluids and the variation of flow
rate and the frictional torque are viscosity
dependent. All the variations are consistent with
the physical nature of the problem.

International Journal of Engineering Science Reviews, Vol. 14, No. 04 (2014) 1411-1420

7. NOMENCLATURE

REFERENCES

R
: Maximum outer radius of bearing,
xo , ro ,o : Measure of supply hole,
h
: Constant film thickness,

[1] Singh U P, Gupta R S, Kapur V K, 2011. On the

steady performance of hydrostatic thrust
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[2] Giannikos C., Buckholz R. H., 1988. Elastic

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xz

po
p

xz

: Shearing stress,
: Frictional torque,
: Fluid flow rate,
: Supply Pressure,
: Film pressure,
: Density of fluid,
: Angular velocity of runner,
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p
:
po

po h

u
v
r

s
z

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r
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,
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Please cite this paper as
Singh, U., P.; On the Steady Performance of Externally
Pressurized Spherical and Conical Bearings: Rabinowitsch
Fluid Model; Int J. Eng. Sci. Rev.; Vol. 14, No. 4 (2014) 14111420.