Stability of journal bearings with a load in an arbitrary direction: A non-linear transient analysis

In maneuvering, a ship experiences motions in all six degrees of freedom. Rolling, a common motion of ship sailing on the sea is probably the most unwanted of all. One of the parameters responsible for the rolling of the ship is the load acting at an arbitrary angle on the bearing and the transverse displacements of the heavy loads on the journal bearings of the ship. These are considered as the degrees of freedom in the present paper. When the bearings using non-Newtonian lubricants are operating at high speeds, there is a possibility of whirl instability, which limits the speed, and hence rolling of the ship. The present study considers the effect of such a load on the stability of bearings using non-Newtonian lubricant. The equations of motion of the system are derived and are solved by the fourth order Runge-Kutta method to evaluate the mass parameter (a measure of stability). It is observed that the stability is very high at lower eccentricity ratio for a given additional load at all angles.