Preliminary Design of a Herringbone Journal Bearing for a High-Speed Compressor

The preliminary design of aerodynamic journal bearings for high-speed compressor is carried out. The herringbone grooved bearing geometry is considered for a vertical unloaded shaft. The geometry of the grooves is optimized to maximize the pressure distribution in the concentric rotor condition. The sensitivity analysis carried out to evaluate the effect of each geometrical parameter on the pressure distribution suggests that the optimum value of the geometric parameters of grooves is independent of the length of the bearing. Moreover, the groove inclination angle and the groove depth are more influential parameters on performance than the variation in the groove to ridge ratio.