Abstract
Oil film journal bearings are used widely in many rotational machines such as engines, turbines, compressors. The oil film in journal bearings had been investigated experimentally and theoretically by many researchers. In this study, we focus on the behavior of the oil film. By using the semiconductor laser unit mounting multi laser elements proposed in this study and high-speed camera, experimental visualization of the oil films are conducted under starved lubrication and flood lubrication conditions. Moreover the video data are analyzed by PIV (particle image velocimetry) and the characteristics of oil flow especially around cavitations in flooded and starved lubrications are compared.
