Abstract: | Liquid metal, which is a conductor of electric current, may be used as a lubricant at high temperatures. In recent years considerable attention has been devoted to various problems on the motion of an electrically conducting liquid lubricant in magnetic and electric fields (magnetohydrodynamic theory of lubrication), Thus, for example, references 1–3] study the flow of a conducting lubricating fluid between two plane walls located in a magnetic field. An electrically conducting lubricating layer in a magnetohydrodynamic bearing with cylindrical surfaces is considered in 4–8] and elsewhere.The present work is concerned with the solution of the plane magnetohydrodynamic problem on the pressure distribution of a viscous eletrically conducting liquid in the lubricating layer of a cylindrical bearing along whose axis there is directed a constant magnetic field, while a potential difference from an external source is applied between the journal and the bearing. The radial gap in the bearing is not assumed small, and the problem reduces to two-dimensional system of magnetohydrodynamic equations.An expression is obtained for the additional pressure in the lubricating layer resulting from the electromagnetic forces. In the particular case of a very thin layer the result reported in 4–8] is obtained. SI units are used. |