Effect of surface roughness and elastic deformation on the performance of a magnetic fluid-based squeeze film in rotating porous annular plates

Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to study and analyse the behaviour of a magnetic fluid-based squeeze film between rotating transversely rough porous annular plates, taking the elastic deformation into consideration. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The stochastic film thickness characterizing the roughness is considered to be asymmetric with non-zero mean and variance and skewness while a magnetic fluid is taken as the lubricant. The associated stochastically averaged Reynolds-type equation is solved with appropriate boundary conditions to obtain the pressure distribution, which in turn is used to derive the expression for the load-carrying capacity. Findings ‐ It is observed that the roughness of the bearing surfaces affects the performance adversely, although the bearing registers an improved performance owing to the magnetic fluid lubricant. Also, it is seen that the deformation causes reduced load-carrying capacity. The bearing can support a load even in the absence of flow, unlike the case of conventional lubricants. Originality/value ‐ The originality of the paper lies in the fact that the negative effect of porosity, deformation and standard deviation can be minimized to some extent by the positive effect of the magnetic fluid lubricant in the case of negatively skewed roughness by suitably choosing the rotational inertia and aspect ratio. This effect becomes sharper when negative variance occurs.