PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The stability of a bearing is influenced by the turbulent conditions encountered during its operation. In this paper, a linearised perturbation method is used to theoretically investigate the stability of a three-axial groove water lubricated bearing. The stiffness and the damping coefficients are plotted for different eccentricity ratios of the bearing, for groove angles of 36o and 18o. The mass parameter and the whirl ratio, which are a measure of stability, are also plotted against the bearing number for different values of Reynolds number. The bearing shows very good stability at higher eccentricity ratios. The stiffness and damping coefficients as well as the mass parameter increase as the Reynolds number increases. The whirl ratios are unaffected by the change in Reynolds number.