Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2019:

Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition

GT2019
June 17-21, 2019, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

GT2019-91314

Prediction of Film Thickness of an Aero-Engine Bearing Chamber using Coupled VOF and
Thin Film Model

Kuldeep Singh1, Medhat Sharabi1, Stephen Ambrose1, Carol Eastwick1, Richard Jefferson-Loveday1*,
1
University Technology Centre in Gas Turbine Transmission Systems, Faculty of Engineering, the University of
Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

ABSTRACT 𝑚̇ Mass flow rate

In the present work, a coupled volume-of-fluid (VOF) n Shaft rotational speed
model with Eulerian thin-film model (ETFM) approach is used P Absolute pressure
to predict the film thickness in an aero-engine bearing chamber. r radius
Numerical studies are conducted for a wide range of shaft speeds R Velocity ratio
with lubricant and air flow rates of 100 l/hr and 10 g/s T Absolute temperature
respectively, at a scavenge ratio of 4 on a simplified bearing u Velocity
chamber test rig. Air-flow analysis inside the bearing chamber is W Chamber length
also assessed. Primary and secondary airflow predictions are Subscripts
found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. The a Air
coupled ETFM+VOF approach is found to be sensitive enough ch chamber
to capture the qualitative trend of oil film formation and f face
distribution over the chamber wall. Oil collection near the sump i ith phase, direction vector
at a low shaft speed and a rotating oil film at a higher shaft speed in inlet
are well captured. o Oil
out Outlet
scv Scavenge
NOMENCLATURE sh Shaft
Acronyms
ETFM Eulerian Thin film Model INTRODUCTION
HPC High Performance Computing The bearing chamber of an aero-engine is a cylindrical
SR Scavenge Ratio enclosure of the turbine shaft and bearings. The lubricating oil
SST Shear Stress Transport supplied to the bearings is dispersed due to the angular velocity
RSDM Rotational Speed Driven Mode of the shaft and collected at the inner wall of the bearing
SADM Sealing Air Driven Model chamber. Glahn et al. [1] identified bearings as a primary source
TD Turbulence Damping of the formation of oil droplets where lubricating oil is atomized
UDF User-Defined Function by the roller elements and the cage before ejecting into the
VOF Volume of Fluid bearing chamber. The oil shed from the bearings may appear in
Symbols the form of droplets, mist, ligaments, thin-film, or combinations
A Area of these, Chandra et al. [2], as depicted in Fig. 1. Pressurized air
D Shaft Diameter is supplied to labyrinths seals to isolate bearing chamber from
α Volume fraction the gaseous environment of the engine. The interaction of air
γ Inlet swirl angle with this shed oil presents a complex two-phase flow
μ Viscosity environment. An oil film driven by gravity and shearing action
σ Oil-air surface tension of air is observed on the rotating shaft and the stationary walls of
ϕ Angular position the chamber. Kurz and Bauer [3] conducted an experimental
ρ Density study to investigate the influence of shaft speed on the oil film
*Address all correspondence to this author. The author’s current formation. They identified two distinct oil flow regimes. At
contact information:[email protected] lower shaft speeds, the oil flow is mainly driven by gravity and

1 Copyright © 2019 Rolls-Royce plc

a very thin oil film was observed on the chamber wall. At higher shaft is too computationally expensive as it requires relatively
shaft speeds, a rotating oil film was observed with the shearing refined grids to capture the thin oil film. To cope with this
action of air influencing the oil film. The momentum flux of air difficulty, and to present a fast predictive tool, VOF coupled with
and momentum transfer to the air by the rotating shaft was used ETFM was implemented by Kakimpa et al. [6] for rimming
as a parameter to determine the critical shaft speed for bearing flows. A depth-averaged ETFM model is used in the region
chambers of varying diameter and length to demark the change where oil film thickness is smaller than the affordable grid size
in the regime. By using the later parameter, Kurz and Bauer [3] required for VOF. A traditional VOF approach is retained in the
successfully scaled the critical shaft speed with oil flow rate for domain where grid resolution is sufficient for the VOF studies.
the bearing chambers of different length but of the same outer In the study of Kakimpa et al. [6], a qualitative comparison
diameter. However, the correlation did not work for the bearing of numerical results of coupled ETFM+VOF model and VOF
chambers of different outer diameters. were presented. Qualitative trends could not reveal much about
the performance of the coupled model. Hence, the authors
recommended to validate this model against experimental
results. In the present study, the coupled ETFM+VOF approach
is utilized to predict film thickness on a simplified bearing
chamber. A quantitative comparison is required to understand the
film-thickness prediction capability of the coupled ETFM+VOF
model. Present work emphasized on accessing the coupled
model capability to predict film thickness inside a simplified
bearing chamber. In the coupled approach, ETFM and VOF are
coupled through mass and momentum conserving source terms.
In order to define the transition from ETFM to VOF or vice-
versa, the total liquid volume fraction in each cell is evaluated
and depending on local grid resolution either the ETFM or VOF
model is used. In this study, the commercial CFD code
ANSYS/FLUENT, based on finite volume method (FVM) is
Fig. 1: Schematic showing operation of an aero-engine bearing used for numerical analysis. The coupling of ETFM and VOF is
chamber. achieved by incorporating a user defined function (UDF).
The model validation for an aero-engine bearing chamber
The experimental studies of Gorse et al. [4,5] considering application is included in this study. The numerical results are
airflow without oil, revealed the influence of air flow rate and compared with the experimental results of Kurz et al. [7] on a
rotational speed on the secondary airflow. The airflow in the simplified bearing chamber for shaft speed ranging from 5,000
azimuthal direction (ϕ) is classified as primary airflow and rpm to 15,000 rpm for the lubricant and air flow rates of 100 l/hr
airflow in axial-radial plane is considered as secondary airflow and 10 g/s respectively, at a scavenging ratio of 4.
structure. A strong influence of rotational shaft speed and airflow
rate was reported on the secondary air vortices. The flow Vent
behavior is classified either as rotational speed driven mode Chamber Wall
(RSDM) or sealing air driven mode (SADM). Above a velocity
ratio (Ush/ Uax) of 4.2, rotational speed was found to drive the
flow field and below 4.2 sealing air influenced the flow field.
Despite the experimental evidence of the influence of air on
Shaft
the development and spreading of the oil film, interaction of air
with the oil is not well-understood inside a bearing chamber. It
is difficult to quantify the interaction of air with the oil by
experimental studies alone due to the complexity of the flow and
limitations of measurement techniques. Hence, a reliable and
efficient computational model based on computational fluid
dynamic (CFD) is much desired to enhance the existing Sump Pump
understanding of thin-film hydrodynamics inside the bearing
chamber. Building on the previous work of Kakimpa et al. [6], a
volume-of-fluid (VOF) model coupled with Eulerian thin-film Fig. 2: Schematic diagram of computational domain and key
model (ETFM) is implemented to predict the film thickness in dimensions.
an aero-engine bearing chamber. A multi-scale lubricant film is PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
observed in the bearing chamber of an aero-engine. Utilizing the In the present work, a volume-of-fluid (VOF) model coupled
VOF approach alone to capture the formation of the thin-film with Eulerian thin-film model (ETFM) is implemented to predict
and its interaction with the air-flows induced due to the rotating the film thickness in an aero-engine bearing chamber. The

2 Copyright © 2019 Rolls-Royce plc

geometry of the bearing chamber is extracted from the
experimental work of Kurz et al. [7]. A shaft of diameter,
D=128mm rotates through the whole length of the chamber. The
diameter and axial length of the bearing chamber are 1.73D and
0.52D, respectively.
A set of roller bearings are mounted on the one end of the
shaft and labyrinth air seal on the other end of the shaft. The
lubricating oil from the bearing enters into the chamber from the
bearing side and air enters from the labyrinth air seal. Krug [8]
reported a negligible effect of the bearing geometry on the oil-
film velocity distribution on the wall in case of roller bearings
without air cross-flows. Hence, in the computational model, the
oil inlet was modelled as a plain surface rather than modelling αl,total > 0.5
roller bearing, similar to the work of Peduto et al. [9], Krug et al.
[10] and Bristot et al. [11]. Circular vent and scavenge pipes of
diameter 10mm are located at the top and the bottom of the
chamber along the width-wise centerline. In the case of an aero-
αl,total ≤ 0.5
engine bearing chamber, a known mass of the lubricant based on
the pre-decided scavenging ratio is drawn from the sump. In
order to model this condition numerically, a scavenge pump Fig. 3: Grid resolution requirement for (a) ETF model (b) VOF
model approach based on the work of Robinson et al. [12] is (c) Coupled ETFM+VOF model.
adopted. Thus, the computational model with the key dimensions
from the experimental rig of Kurz et al. [7] and with the above
mentioned simplifications is shown in Fig. 1. + 𝛼𝑢 =𝑆 (1)
MATHEMATICAL MODEL
Coupling of Eulerian thin-film model with VOF 𝜕 𝜕
(𝜌 𝑢 ) + 𝜌 𝑢𝑢
In the present study a volume-of-fluid (VOF) model coupled 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥
with Eulerian thin-film model (ETFM) developed by Kakimpa 𝜕𝑝 𝜕 𝑢 (2)
et al. [6] is implemented to predict the film thickness in an aero- =− + + 𝜌 𝑔
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑥 𝑥
engine bearing chamber. In this study, a finite volume method
+𝑆 ,
based commercial CFD code ANSYS/FLUENT is used.
ANSYS/FLUENT has the capability to solve VOF and ETFM
𝜕ℎ 𝜕𝑞 (3)
individually. Coupling of these two models is achieved by + =𝑆
implementing a user defined function (UDF). The transition 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥
from one model to the other is triggered based on a local mesh
resolution criteria. The grid resolution requirement of ETFM, + ∫ 𝑢 𝑢 𝑑𝑦 = − + + (4)
VOF and coupled ETFM+ VOF method is depicted in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3(c) also demonstrated the grid resolution criterion adopted 𝑔 ℎ+𝑆 , +𝑆 ,
in this study.
The local mesh resolution is assessed on the basis of total where, S𝑚−𝑉𝑂𝐹, S𝑚−𝐸𝑇𝐹𝑀, S𝑀𝑂𝑀−𝑉𝑂𝐹,𝑗 and S𝑀𝑂𝑀−ETFM, 𝑗 are the
volume fraction (αl,total = αl,ETFM + αl,VOF) of the liquid resident in mass and momentum transfer source terms for the VOF domain
a given cell. Following the work of Kakimpa et al. [6], a cut-off and the ETFM domain respectively. The expression of these
volume criterion (αcut-off = 0.5) is adopted. When the volume source terms are given in equation (5) to equation (8).
fraction of a given cell reaches the cut-off volume computations
are switched to a film-resolving VOF method and vice-versa. 𝑆 = (𝛼 ×𝜌 )/𝑑𝑡 (5)
Film mass and momentum are transferred from one model to
another according to the cut-off volume criterion. The flow 𝑆 = (ℎ × 𝐴 , ×𝜌 )/𝑉 𝑑𝑡 (6)
governing equations viz. continuity and momentum for the
individual model can be found in references [6] & [13]. 𝑆 , =𝑚 (𝑈 , −𝑈, ) (7)
Moreover, the continuity and momentum equation for the
coupled model are given by equations (1-2) for VOF region and 𝑆 , = 𝑚 (𝑈 , −𝑈, ) (8)
(3-4) for ETFM region.
where, α is volume fraction, u is velocity, m is
equivalent density of all phases, p is pressure, g is acceleration
due to gravity, h is film height, q is flow rate, σ is surface tension,
k is interface normal curvature, αVOF is contribution of VOF in

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volume fraction of oil, Vcell, is cell volume, film is density of film are specified at the chamber walls. Boundary conditions imposed
material i.e. oil, Af is cell face area. on the computational domain are depicted in Fig. 4.
In the present study, non-uniform structured grids are used to
Turbulence Modelling and Free Surface Tracking discretize the computational domain. Grids with 1,817,260 cells
The flow inside a bearing chamber is turbulent. In the present were generated using ICEM/CFD, a pre-processor to
study, Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) is solved to ANSYS/FLUENT.
account the effect of turbulence. Based on the prior experience
of Nottingham group [11], Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω
turbulence model is used to achieve closure of equation.
Turbulent quantities such as k and ω are used to calculate
√
velocity scale and length scale which are √𝑘 and respectively.
In the case of the VOF approach, fluids filling a cell are
treated as a mixture and as a consequence the speed of all the
phases is the same in a given cell. This situation leads to a lack
in the definition of the interface which results in a non-physical
turbulent momentum transfer between the liquid and gaseous
phase. Egorov [14] implemented a source term in ω equation of
k- ω model to introduce solid wall like damping of turbulence at
the interface of both the phases. This source term is given by (a) (b)
equation (9)
Fig. 4 (a) boundary conditions imposed on the computation
𝐴. ∆𝑦𝛽𝜌 𝐵. (9) domain and a typical mesh (b) sectional view of bearing
∆
chamber.
where, A is interface area density, subscript i presents ith
phase, 𝛽 the closure coefficient of the destruction term, ρ is OPERATING CONDITIONS AND FLUID PROPERTIES
density, B is a scaling coefficient known as turbulence damping The operating conditions and fluid properties considered in
factor, μ is viscosity and Δ𝑛 is the near-wall cell height. Egorov the present numerical work are taken from the experimental
[14] recommended a value of 10 for turbulence damping factor study of Kurz et al. [7]. The shaft speed is varied from 5000 RPM
(B) for grids having Y+ =1 at the interface and a higher value for to 15000 RPM. Air and oil are considered as working fluids.
the coarser mesh. Tkaczyk [15] and Adeniyi et al. [16] utilized Fluid properties corresponding to the operating conditions are
this approach for the application of bearing chambers. Tkaczyk given in Table-1.
[15] recommended a value of 100 for the turbulence damping
factor based on the numerical studies on stratified flows for a Table-1 Operating conditions and fluid properties (taken from
relatively coarser mesh at the interface. This value of 100 for the [7])
turbulence damping factor is therefore adopted in the present
Operating Conditions Fluid Properties
study.
Air mass
10 g/s Air density 2.52 kg/m3
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS AND MESH flow rate
The boundary conditions imposed on the computational Oil flow rate 25.8 g/s Air viscosity 2.21E-05 kg/ms
domain are depicted in Fig. 4. Air enters in to the domain from Inlet swirl
an annular surface of height 0.7 mm which represents labyrinth 50° - Oil density 929.5 kg/m3
angle
air seal and oil enters from a representative surface for the Chamber
bearing following the work of Peduto et al. [9], Krug et al. [10] 2.7 bar Oil viscosity 4.83E-03 kg/ms
pressure
and Bristot et al. [11]. A mass flow inlet boundary condition with Air Oil-air surface
a swirl angle, γ= 50° is specified at the inlet of these surfaces 373 K 2.45E-02 N/m
temperature tension
based on the guidelines of Bristot et al. [11] and Peduto et al. Pump
[9]. The shaft is considered as a rotating wall with the rotation scavenge 4-
direction of shaft clockwise when seen from the bearing side. A ratio
pressure outlet boundary is specified at the outlet of vent whereas
a negative velocity boundary condition is imposed at the sump NUMERICAL METHODS AND SOLUTION PROCEDURE
outlet. The value of velocity magnitude is set on the basis of The surface-capturing Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method
scavenging ratio. Non-slip wall boundary conditions are coupled with Eulerian Thin Film Model (ETFM) is used in the
imposed on all the other surfaces. Eulerian film wall conditions current numerical study. Compressive interface capturing
scheme is used based on the recommendation of Bristot [17].

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 First order implicit scheme is used for temporal discretization et al. [7] follows a similar trend, which no airflow experimental
and second-order upwind interpolation scheme is used to data exists for this case. The difference in the magnitude can be
spatially discretize the governing equations. Coupled algorithm attributed to the variation of the geometric and operating
is used for pressure–velocity coupling. condition in these two studies. Gorse et al. [4] characterized the
air-flow in tangential/ azimuthal direction as primary air-flow
VALIDATION AND DISCUSSION and the airflow in the radial-axial plane as the secondary air-flow.
Air Flow Analysis inside the Bearing Chamber The secondary air vortices are responsible for the spreading
In order to assess the single phase airflow behavior of the of the oil onto the walls of chamber. Gorse et al. [4] reported that
investigated test rig, numerical simulations are carried out the secondary vortices are either driven in rotational speed mode
considering airflow only without oil. The experimental study (RSDM) or by sealing air mode (SADM). In RSDM two counter
which is considered as a benchmark [7] for the present numerical rotating vortices are observed with a separating streamline close
investigation, covers only scavenging efficiency and film to the mid-span of the axial length of the chamber. The vortex
thickness distribution, not airflow information. Hence, for the towards the sealing air side keeps on increasing with the
comparison of airflow inside the bearing chamber, a numerical increasing flow rate of air. In SADM, the vortex on the bearing
study is also conducted on the experimental rig of Gorse et al. side disappears and a single vortex is observed. A transition
[4]. The test rig investigated by Kurz et al. [7] has identical between these two modes was reported for ma = 12.7 g/s and n =
dimensions other than the axial length of bearing chamber which 9700 rpm i.e. the case considered for validation.
was 1.4 times that of Gorse et al. [4]. Air flow rate and shaft
revolution per minute considered in the simulations were 12.7
g/s and 9700 RPM for the test rig of Gorse et al. [4] and 10 g/s
and 10,000 RPM for the test rig of Kurz et al. [7]. These
operating conditions were selected so that qualitative
comparisons could be made. The radial profile of non-
dimensional tangential velocity is plotted in Fig. 5 for the
investigated test rigs, showing the experimental data from [4] as
well as the two simulated cases. It can be seen from this figure
that the radial variation of non-dimensional tangential velocity
follows the trend as reported in the experimental study of Gorse
et al. [4].
0.5
Exp. Gorse et al. (2003): ma =12.7g/s, 9700 RPM
Present Num. (Gorse Rig): ma =12.7g/s, 9700 RPM
Present Num. (Kurz Rig): ma =10g/s, 10000 RPM
0.4
Utan/Ush

0.3

0.2

z/W = 0.6
0.1
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
(r-ri)/(ro-ri)
Fig. 5 A comparison of radial profile of tangential velocity
component for the investigated test rigs.
Fig. 6 Schematic depicting RSDM and SADM.
The numerical results predict the radial distribution of non-
dimensional tangential velocity with a maximum 10% difference The velocity vectors in the r-z plane are plotted in Fig. 7. The
in the tangential velocity close to the shaft compared to the experimental results of Gorse et al. [4] are shown in Fig. 7 (a)
experimental results. This difference decreases as the radial and the present numerical results are shown in Fig. 7(b). It is
distance increases i.e. towards the chamber wall. evident from the figure that the present numerical study captured
It can also be observed from Fig. 5 that the radial distribution the transition mode accurately. The location and size of the
of tangential velocity for the case simulating the test rig of Kurz

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secondary air-vortex towards the bearing side is identical to that
observed in the experimental study. 𝑅= (7)
,

On the test rig of Kurz et al. [7] for ma = 10 g/s and n = 10,000
RPM, the velocity ratio R is 5.75 and hence two counter rotating
vortices are expected corresponding to RSDM. The velocity
vectors in the r-z plane obtained from the present numerical
study on the test rig of Kurz et al. [7] are shown in Fig. 8 for the
qualitative comparison.

(a)

(z/W)

Fig. 8 Velocity vectors in r-z plane obtained from numerical

analysis for ma = 10 g/s and n = 10,000 RPM on the test rig of
Kurz et al. [7].

Two almost identical but counter rotating secondary air

vortices can be identified in Fig. 8 which confirm the rotational
speed driven mode for the given operating conditions. Apart
(b) from the qualitative comparison of the secondary air vortices,
mean tangential velocity, 𝑈 of the core air-flow is assessed for
the test rig of Kurz et al. [7]. The only available airflow data in
Fig. 7 A qualitative comparison of velocity vectors in r-z plane the reference case of Kurz et al. [7] was the mean tangential
for ma = 12.7 g/s and n = 9,700 RPM (a) Gorse et al. [4] (b) velocity, 𝑈 of the core air-flow. Hence, the numerical results
present numerical results on the test rig of Gorse et al. [4]. of mean tangential velocity are compared at 5,000 rpm, 10,000
rpm and 15,000 rpm. The deviation in the numerical results was
Despite the fact that the bearing chamber length is different 6% at 5,000 rpm, 2.2 % at 10,000 rpm and 1.3 % at 15,000 rpm.
in the test rig of Gorse et al. [4] and Kurz et al. [7] and the Hence, it can be concluded that the present numerical study is
operating conditions are also slightly offset, the mode of capable of predicting airflow inside a bearing chamber within an
secondary vortices can be analyzed based on the velocity ratio acceptable accuracy.
(R) criterion proposed by Gorse et al. [4] defined in Eq. (7). If R
> 4.2, airflow is driven by the rotational speed of the shaft
otherwise airflow is driven by the sealing air.

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Film Thickness sufficient to carry a bulk of oil with itself at counter-current
Film thickness was measured at eight locations along the chamber side where gravitational force and shear force acts in
periphery of the bearing chamber in the experimental study of opposite direction, yet air displaces the oil. As a result a thick
Kurz et al. [7] which is the benchmark case for validating film layer of oil is observed at location, ϕ = 135° in the experimental
thickness. The diameter of the film thickness measuring sensors study. This phenomenon is not well captured in the
was 10mm in the experimental study. Therefore, in order to computational studies.
calculate a sensor area-averaged film thickness at a particular
location, nine computational probes were placed in an equivalent
probe area in the numerical model for each experimental sensor 1.4 5000 RPM ma = 10 g/s mo = 25.8 g/s

location. The experimental location of sensors and a scheme for Kurz et al. (2013)
1.2 VOF
a computational probe is shown in Fig. 9. ETFM+VOF
Krug et al. (2015)-VOF-M1

Film Thickness, mm
1.0 Krug et al. (2015)-VOF-M2

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

45 75 105 135 230 255 285 315

o
()

Fig. 10 Comparison of predicted film thickness with the

experimental measurement of Kurz et al. [7] and numerical
(a) (b) results of Krug et al. [10].

Fig. 9 (a) Angular locations of the sensors for film-thickness Apart from the coupled approach, a numerical study was also
measurement in experimental study of Kurz et al. [7] (b) nine carried out with the VOF alone. For the case of VOF studies, the
point probe scheme for numerical model at sensor location 135o. mesh was refined near the outer wall of the chamber to
sufficiently resolve the oil film. The centroid of the first cell was
A comparison of the film thickness obtained from the present placed 15 μm from the chamber wall. Based on the
numerical study carried out at shaft speed of 5,000 rpm, air-flow recommendation of Bristot [17] six nodes were kept in first 200
rate of 10 g/s and oil flow rate of 25.8 g/s is shown in Fig. 10, μm spacing from the chamber wall. The final mesh used for VOF
this also shows the result of a VOF analysis carried out alongside studies had 3,206,572 cells. It can be observed from Fig. 9 that
the coupled ETFM+VOF and results from a previous numerical film thickness is over-predicted by VOF approach. This might be
study by Krug et al. [10]. The numerical investigation of Krug et due to the false momentum transfer between the phases as
al. [10] utilized VOF approach alone to predict film thickness; reported by Krug et al. [10]. Turbulence damping factor is the
two grids with cell size 621,500 (M1) and 1,700,000 (M2) were controlling parameter to adjust the momentum transfer between
investigated. The computational grids used in the present study the phases. In the present study, a value of 100 is taken for
is close to the second mesh (M2) of Krug et al. [10]. turbulence damping factor based on the numerical study of
It can be observed from Fig. 9 that the present numerical Tkaczyk [15] on stratified flows in a channel for coarser grids at
results obtained from coupled ETFM+VOF approach is in better interface. Bristot [17] reported a huge variation in the numerical
agreement with the experimental results compared to the results with a turbulence damping factor of 10 and 100
numerical results of Krug et al. [10] obtained from VOF method. specifically at counter-current chamber side. Hence, further
It can be observed from Fig. 10 that the numerical results investigation is required to obtain an optimum value of
obtained from the coupled ETFM+VOF approach are under- turbulence damping factor for bearing chamber applications.
predicting the film thickness as compared to the experimental For the VOF only case computational time was increase by
results of Kurz et al. [7]. It can also be noted that the deviation three times compared to the coupled ETFM+VOF approach.
in the numerical results at co-current chamber side (180° < ϕ < This indicates the importance of the coupled approach in
360°) is lower as compared to the counter-current chamber side developing an efficient method for predicting film-thickness
(0° < ϕ < 180°). At the lower shaft speed (5000 RPM) inside a bearing chamber. Although, the results obtained from the
gravitational force dominates over the air shearing force. coupled approach are not in complete agreement with the
Consequently, the lubricating oil collects in the region close to experimental results they do show a closer agreement than the
the sump. Although, the shearing force exerted by the air is not VOF results reported in the literature for a similar mesh size.

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 The coupled ETFM+VOF approach is still in development negligible. This indicates that the specified region is resolved by
and further improvement in the modelling approach including a VOF approach.
better understanding of the effects of switching criterion from
ETFM to VOF or vice versa and local mesh resolution based on
the switching criterion is recommended.
A qualitative comparison of oil distribution over bearing
chamber wall is shown in Fig. 11 to Fig. 13 for shaft speeds of
5000rpm, 10,000rpm and 15,000 rpm respectively.

Region resolved
Region resolved by ETFM
by VOF
(a)
(a)

Region resolved Region resolved

by VOF by ETFM

(b)

(b)

Fig. 11 Shaft speed of 5,000 RPM and t= 0.3s. (a) Contours of Fig. 12 Shaft speed of 10,000 RPM and t= 0.3s. (a) Contours of
film-thickness on the chamber wall in the ETFM region along film-thickness on the chamber wall in the ETFM region along
with the iso-surfaces of oil volume fraction, αi,VOF = 0.5 (b) with the iso-surfaces of oil volume fraction, αi,VOF = 0.5 (b)
contours of oil volume fraction. contours of oil volume fraction

It is evident from the iso-surface of oil volume fraction, αi,VOF = The contours of oil volume fraction shown in Fig. 11 (b) also
0.5 that oil collected towards the sump in the region, 150° < ϕ < confirms that the oil volume fraction in the region 150° < ϕ <
180° for a shaft speed of 5,000 rpm, shown in Fig. 11 (a). This 180° is higher than 0.5 which was the criterion adopted for
trend matches experimental observation [7] of an increase in oil switching from ETFM approach to VOF or vice-versa. It shows
film thickness towards the scavenge pipe. It can also be observed that the present coupling approach of ETFM and VOF is
that in the region 150° < ϕ < 180°, the contribution of the functioning as per the expectations. At the higher shaft speed i.e.
Eulerian thin film model in the measurement of film-thickness is 10000 rpm and 15000 rpm a rotating oil film is observed. The

8 Copyright © 2019 Rolls-Royce plc

contours of film thickness along with the iso-surface of oil The numerical results revealed that the coupled ETFM+VOF
volume fraction, αi,VOF = 0.5 (refer Fig. 12a and Fig.13a) reveals approach is sensitive enough to capture the qualitative trend of
that the oil is not only near the sump but is distributed on the oil film formation and distribution over the chamber wall. Oil
walls of the bearing chamber at the higher shaft speeds. collection near the sump at lower shaft speed and a rotating oil
film at higher shaft speed is well captured. Under-prediction of
the oil film-thickness over the chamber wall as compared to the
experimental results, was noticeable. The coupled ETFM+VOF
approach is still in development and further improvement in the
modelling approach include a better understanding of the effects
of switching criterion from ETFM to VOF or vice versa and local
mesh resolution based on the switching criterion is
recommended. The turbulence damping source term is also an
important factor which governs the momentum exchange
between the liquid and gas phases. A detailed study to understand
this source term and scaling of turbulence damping factor for
bearing chamber application is also required.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research leading to these results has received funding
from the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking under the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
(a) Region resolved Region resolved
programme under grant agreement No 724625.
by ETFM The calculations were performed using the University of
by VOF
Nottingham High Performance Computing Facility and Athena
at HPC Midlands+, which was funded by the EPSRC on grant
EP/P020232/1.
Authors’ are thankful for technical support provided by Mr.
Adrian Jacobs, Rolls-Royce plc. Derby, UK.

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