Experimental Investigation on the Film Pressure Measurement in Microgap Water-Lubricated Hybrid Journal Bearing

The film pressure of a microgap water-lubricated hybrid journal bearing (HJB) was investigated in this article. The pressure transmission system (PTS) formed by the flow exchange from clearance to the membrane of the sensor was also studied. Three static loads, five rotational speeds, and five water supply pressures were used in this study. The pressure was obtained from a microgap water-lubricated HJB test rig. The experimental results showed that the variation trend of the film pressure agreed with the theoretical results except that the pressure values were lower than the theoretical data. The experimental results should be corrected by the PTS to reflect the real film pressure. The influence of PTS should be considered to improve the precision of experimental results of microgap HJBs.