Knowledge-based approach to design partial journal bearings

Various methods for designing hydrodynamic partial journal bearings are reviewed and an integrated and dependable design procedure is developed. Knowledge and rule bases pertaining to the design of journal bearings having arcs of 180°, 120°, and 60° are either gathered or derived and represented properly. An expert system is developed using the databases and rulebases. The bearing design is based on one of the following decision criteria: the maximum load, the minimum friction, or the optimal clearance. The expert system makes an exhaustive search for all the design solutions. Utility value of each of the final solutions is calculated and the design solutions having utility values above a certain limit are stored. The results are presented to demonstrate the usefulness of the knowledge-based approach.