Non-newtonian Rabinowitsch Fluid Effects on the Lubrication Performances of Sine Film Thrust Bearings

Thrust bearings are generally developed to sustain axial load generated from rotating machinery. Predicting lubrication performances of thrust bearings plays an important role in engineering applications. Taking into account the effects of non-Newtonian rheology, the lubrication performances for a sine film thrust bearing are investigated in the present paper. By employing a small perturbation technique to the nonlinear non-Newtonian Reynolds equation, analytical solutions of the film pressure, the load-carrying capacity, the friction parameter and the required volume flow rate are derived. Comparing with the case lubricated with a Newtonian lubricant, the non-Newtonian Rabinowitsch fluids (including the pseudo-plastic fluids and the dilatant fluids) show significant influences on the lubrication performances of a sine film thrust bearing, especially for a larger value of the non-Newtonian parameter.