The author proposes an intriguing novel fluid rheology model [1] which can address both gas and cavitating liquid bearings depending on the choice of a single adjustable gas mass fraction number λ. His model appears to be readily incorporated into a finite element representation of the Reynolds equation, and his numerical results appear to agree well with previously published numerical and experimental results for thrust bearings under steady load and speed.
We must note that his literature survey is incomplete in that it omits all mention of an older mass-conserving cavitation algorithm proposed by Kumar and Booker [2] for fluid-film bearings and demonstrated in representative publications for planar, cylindrical, and spherical bearing geometry [3–8]. This older algorithm, denoted as the K–B algorithm for discussion purposes here, assumes a biphase lubricant rheology model which does not require a fluid compressibility parameter and...