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Erosion damage in engine bearings is becoming a major issue in premature bearing failure. Its occurrence is very difficult to predict at the design stage. This paper presents a simple mathematical technique based on an Eulerian approach that can predict some types of cavitation prone regions on a bearing surface.

Several cases of rod bearing shells assembled in highly loaded engines have been reported to show premature wear of the sliding surface, more specifically the electroplated lead-tin overlay. To understand these phenomena and overcome such occurrences, an analytical method has been developed to simulate the operation of specially designed journal bearings featuring circumferential profiling of the sliding surface. The resulting computer program solves the Reynolds equation taking into account a non-circular bearing surface, thus allowing for a customized design which extends operational component life through minimum oil film thickness (MOFT) increase and peak oil film pressure (POFP) and bearing back temperature (BBT) reduction. Theoretical results show an effective way to prevent premature wear.