Part of the heat generated by the shearing of the lubricating film during operation of a hydrodynamic bearing is transferred to the bearing components. In the case of the pad, which is usually fully submerged in the lubricating oil, heat is further transferred at the pad free walls to the oil by convection. This mechanism causes a thermal gradient in a pad and, consequently, its thermal deflection. In large hydrodynamic thrust bearings, thermal deflection of the pads is an important phenomenon influencing bearing performance. For such bearings, pad distortion can reach the level of hydrodynamic film thickness and can significantly change the bearing's properties. In this paper, the study of the influence of the heat convection coefficient on the predicted performance of a large hydrodynamic thrust bearing is presented. Two sets of convection coefficients at the pad free surfaces are investigated with the use of thermo-elasto-hydrodynamic (TEHD) calculations. An analysis is carried out for the Itaipu hydro turbine thrust bearing with the outer diameter equal to 5.2 m, which is one of the biggest hydro power plants in the world. The results of the theoretical predictions are compared to the measured data collected during bearing operation.

Hydrodynamic thrust bearings, used to carry axial loads in heavily loaded shafts of water power plants hydro turbines, can reach outer diameters even exceeding 5 m. In such large objects scale effect could be observed. According to this, allowable bearing specific load assuring safe operation of the bearings has to be decreased, which increases thrust bearing dimensions. This effect is caused by excessive thermal deflections of bearing pads, which significantly change oil gap geometry, and in consequence, decreases bearing load-carrying ability. Design of hydrodynamic thrust bearing of large dimensions seems to be a demanding engineering challenge, and additional difficulty comes from limited possibilities of experimental testing of these systems due to high costs. Theoretical investigations, carried out with the use of specially developed computer models, remain a feasible alternative for experimental research. But the accuracy of the models is not often directly validated, because of the lack of appropriate experimental data coming from large objects. In this paper, results of calculations carried out for a large hydrodynamic thrust bearing are shown and compared to measurement data obtained at bearing commissioning stage. Pad temperatures profile sliding surface, oil pressure in hydrodynamic gap and film geometry are compared to the measured values. According to the presented comparisons, some conclusions are drawn with respect to the accuracy of models used to predict large thrust bearing performance.

The start-up of a large hydrodynamic thrust bearing of a vertical hydrogenerator is one of the most critical situations during the lifetime of a bearing. Hydrodynamic load capacity is low due to low speed and higher thermal deformations of the pad. A new approach to the simulation of a hydrodynamic bearing is shown in this article. A combination of finite elements method and computational fluid dynamics is used to perform the transient simulation of the bearing start-up. A bidirectional bearing of a pump-storage power plant is investigated. To show the potential advantages of the new method, a comparison of the warm and cold start procedure is presented. The thermal crowning of the bearing pad, oil film gap and other parameters of both cases are compared in this article.

Fluid-structure interaction technique seems to be one of the most promising possibilities for theoretical analysis of lubrication problems. It allows coupling of different physical fields in one computational task, taking into account the interaction between them. In this article, two sets of fluid-structure interaction analyses focusing on the bearing performance evaluation are presented. One analysis was applied to a water-lubricated journal bearing and the other to a hydrodynamic thrust bearing lubricated with oil. Steady-state operation was considered in both cases. In the presented cases of fluid-structure interaction analyses, all important phenomena accompanying bearing operation are considered, e.g. lubricant flow, structure movements and their deformations as well as heat transfer in case of thrust bearing. The problems encountered during modelling are discussed in this article, as well as the results of calculations: hydrodynamic pressures, gap geometries or temperature profiles.

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Hydrostatic assistance is a commonly used method to improve limited load carrying ability of tiltingpad thrust bearings during transient states of operation of vertical shaft hydro-generators. Despite of special hydraulic equipment (as pumps, valves, etc.), it also requires manufacturing of special recesses/pockets at pad sliding surfaces, into which oil is injected under high pressure. It allows to lift the rotor before start-up of the machine and form a hydrostatic film between pads and collar. There is a quite wide variety of geometry of recesses (shape, depth, and size) met in practical large bearing applications. The presence of a hydrostatic pocket (usually located in the sliding surface above the pivot area, where thin film, high oil pressure and temperature are observed) affects bearing performance under hydrodynamic operation.In theoretical researches, there is an almost common practice not to include hydrostatic recess in thermohydrodynamic (THD) or thermoelastohydrodynamic (TEHD) analysis. This is probably due to the problems with obtaining solution for oil film geometry with pocket, the order of magnitude of the pocket depths being larger than gap thickness. In this paper, an attempt was taken to study the effect of lifting pocket on THD performance of a large tilting-pad thrust bearing of Itaipu power plant. Bearing performance was evaluated including recess shape for several cases of its depth. The results show that hydrostatic recess changes calculated bearing properties quite significantly, especially in vicinity of the pocket.

An analysis of thrust bearing performance was taken up in order to assess the possibility of bearing installation in a modernized Kaplan turbine. Apart from analysis of the records of machine operation, thermoelastohydrodynamic calculations were carried out. A bearing design incorporating a mechanism of compensation of thermal deformation was of interest, especially as the machine and its bearings were designed earlier than 1952, while the first analyses of such mechanisms known to the authors were published in the 1960s. Apart from direct analysis of the feasibility of the bearing in new operating conditions, the authors carried out a study of the influence of the two most important design parameters on the bearing performance. Thermoelastohydrodynamic calculations showed that the bearing was surprisingly well designed, especially as it was designed without the aid of contemporary calculation methods and techniques. The main conclusion of the analysis was that the bearing pads can be used without any modifications. In addition, it was recommended that the jacking mechanism be redesigned in order to improve load distribution among the pads and facilitate bearing aligning during assembly. The bearing housing was also redesigned in order to reduce the stresses in the welded joints.