In an elliptical journal bearing, the bearing surface has an elliptical shape. A sketch of the elliptical journal bearing is shown in Figure 7-10:

In this case, the initial film thickness depends on the polar coordinate Θ and is given by:

Here, Cmin and Cmax are the minimum and maximum clearance values in the bearing, occurring along the minor and major axis of the ellipse. The variable Θ is the polar angle of a point on the journal surface measured from the local y direction to local z direction and is given by