To accurately evaluate the static and dynamic characteristics of journal bearing,a three-dimensional(3D)computational fluid dynamics(CFD)prediction method is proposed by considering journal whirl and cavitation.With the 3D CFD method,the journal whirl and cavitation are achieved by adopting mesh deformation technique and mixture phase-change model.Through comparison with traditional Reynolds equation solution,we find that(1)the developed prediction method can accurately capture the phenomenon of journal whirl and cavitation,which is more agreeable to actual operating conditions of journal bearing;(2)for single-phase and twophase flow models,the distribution features of oil film pressure are similar in convergent wedge zone while largely different in divergent zone.The oil film pressure and vapor phase volume fraction greatly differ depending on different positions of the journal while whirling;(3)oil film forces change with the whirl motion of the journal,and gradually increase with the increase of whirl frequency;(4)considering journal whirl and cavitation is more accurate to predict the static and dynamic coefficients of journal bearing.The findings are promising to accurately analyze journal bearings to predict the performance of journal bearings.