As a means of increasing the understanding of starved bearing behavior, a theoretical and experimental investigation was conducted. This dissertation describes using developments in free boundary problems analysis and extending them to include temperature effects in starved journal bearings. The dissertation also discusses the related technology development effort.; To fulfill the technological needs, the following theoretical and experimental investigation was conducted on the behavior of oil rings and on the performance of journal bearings, for bearing sizes ranging from 3 in. to 12 in. in diameter for conditions ranging from full hydrodynamic lubrication to a state of extreme lubricant starvation.; The oil delivery of oil rings was experimentally determined, since it is a necessary piece of information required before bearing behavior could be estimated; in addition, the characteristics of rings through several regimes of operation were determined up to journal speeds at which the ring becomes unstable and oil delivery ceases. A parametric study of ring weight, size, shape, tooth depth and orientation, as well as ring material, yielded an optimum ring configuration from the standpoint of maximum oil delivery to the bearing.; The experimental program had a twofold purpose. One was to map the bearing performance characteristics; the other and most important purpose in conjunction with experimental evaluation was the development of an advanced analysis of starved bearings.; Results of an extensive series of tests showed an excellent agreement with the theory and confirmed some of the essential conclusions of the analysis, namely, that the effects of starvation accelerate below the 50% starvation line and that the start of the incomplete film depends only on the level of starvation. Noted for starved bearings was an optimum length-to-diameter ratio which is on the order of 0.6 to 0.8.; The form and occurrence of cavitation, film rupture, and the cavitation in starved bearings are all determined in detail in the light of available experiments. A correlation is offered that provides an estimate of the expected mixing temperature in terms of known geometric and operational parameters.
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