In tilting-pad journal bearings (TPJB) with a non-flooded lubrication concept, higher maximum pad temperatures occur than with a flooded bearing design due to the lower convective heat transfer at the pad edges. In this paper, we present an approach to influence the thermal behavior of a five-pad TPJB by active cooling. The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of additional oil supply grooves at the trailing edge of the two loaded pads on the maximum pad temperature of a large TPJB in non-flooded design. We carry out experimental and numerical investigations for a redesigned test bearing. Within the experimental analysis, the reduction in pad temperature is quantified. A simulation model of the bearing is synthesized with respect to the additional oil supply grooves. The simulation results are compared with the experimental data to derive heat transfer coefficients for the pad surfaces. The experimental results indicate a considerable reduction of the maximum pad temperatures. An overall lower temperature level is observed for the rear pad in circumferential direction (pad 4). The authors attribute this effect by a cooling oil carry-over from the previous pad (3). Within the model limits, a good agreement of the simulation and experimental results can be found.
To improve operational safety and/or achieve a higher load capacity of turbine tilting-pad bearings, an axially concave pad profile is presented. The thermal and mechanical stress of the loaded pads of a test bearing in load between pivot configuration has been analysed. Both film thickness and pressure distribution have been measured at a very high resolution. A fluid film calculation program in combination with a finite-volume-based structural mechanics program is used to simulate the deformation of a single pad under high circumferential speeds. In this context, the axial and tangential heat transfer coefficients of the pad surface, which act as boundary conditions for the calculation of the 3D temperature distribution, are determined using an optimization process. Herein, the match of predicted and measured pad temperatures is the goal. It can be shown that there must be a huge difference in heat transfer in axial and tangential direction in order to match the large measured temperature gradient in circumferential direction. Based on the measured deformed profile the program code is used to derive a concave pad profile, which will result in an axially non-arched sliding surface under the expected thermal load. Therefore, an iterative simulation procedure is used. By decreasing the axial arching of the pad and thus the large film thickness at the axial ends using an improved profile designed for a specific operation point, the minimum film thickness and maximum pad temperature can be influenced beneficially. The comparison of measurement data and calculation results shows very good agreement regarding the pad deformations. The results indicate that by axially concave profiling of the loaded pads of a large tilting-pad bearing for a specific operation point, the static characteristics in the form of temperature, film thickness and load capacity can be improved.
In tilting-pad journal bearings (TPJB), power loss corresponds to the internal friction in the shearing of the oil. Besides the lubrication gap, intermediate spaces between the pads account for a notable amount of frictional losses. Against the background of increasing demands for efficiency and sustainable use of resources, the reduction of power loss takes a key position in the further development of bearings. In our research, we compare two bearing lubrication concepts of a five-pad TPJB. Our objective is to work out the influence of different lubrication methods and bearing housing designs on the bearing operation characteristics. We conduct experimental testing of a 500mm TPJB in two different bearing configurations with respect to the lubrication concept: an oil-flooded and non-flooded bearing design. In the flooded bearing design, oil is supplied via spray-bars and axial seals ensure the inter-pad spaces to be completely filled with oil. The non-flooded design comes without axial seals but oil drain channels to avoid oil accumulation in the bearing. In the latter design, oil is fed in via leading edge grooves (LEG). For the non-flooded bearing design, the experimental data show that the unloaded pads are not completely filled with oil and therefore, no pressure build-up occurs. The absence of additional load on the lower pads compared to the flooded design results in an increase of minimum film thickness. With the non-flooded design, power loss at high speeds is reduced to almost half. As a result, the efficiency of the entire turbomachinery application can be considerably improved.
Large turbine bearings are usually equipped with hydrostatic jacking mechanisms to separate bearing and shaft during transient start-stop procedures. They are turned off once hydrodynamic operation is reached. In some cases, under severe operating conditions, the hydrostatic oil supply is kept running although the rotor already runs in full speed. The supplied amount of jacking oil is very small compared to the regular oil supply. However, experimental data of a large tilting-pad bearing shows that this hybrid operation has a considerable impact on the load carrying capacity in terms of lower pad temperature and larger film thickness. In this paper, a theoretical investigation to analyse the effect of increased load carrying capacity of a large tilting-pad journal bearing in hybrid operation is presented. The increase is driven by three different aspects: 1) hydrostatic pressure component, 2) increase in lubricant viscosity due to the injection of cold oil, 3) decrease of temperature gradients and thus thermal pad deformation. Subject of the approach is a ø500 mm five-pad, rocker-pivot tilting-pad journal bearing in flooded lubrication mode. The experiments are carried out on the Bochum test rig for large turbine bearings. The theoretical analyses are performed with a simulation code solving the Reynolds and energy equations for the oil film and calculating the thermomechanical pad deformations simultaneously. By considering each of the three above aspects separately and in combination, their share of load increase can be assessed individually. Contrary to expectations, the results indicate that the increase is not mostly based on the hydrostatic pressure component. Instead, the advantageously decreased pad deformations make the largest contribution to the increased load carrying capacity while the alteration in viscosity shows the least impact.
A theoretical study is presented with the main objective on the operational safety parameters (minimum film thickness and maximum pad temperature) and thermomechanical deformations of a ø500 mm rocker pad tilting-pad journal bearing (TPJB) for application in large turbo machinery. It can be described by the following specifications: Five pads, 0.23 nominal preload, 60% offset, 56° pad arc angle, 350 mm pad length and 1.28‰ relative bearing clearance. Theoretical investigations are carried out for circumferential speeds up to 78 m/s and static loads up to 3.60 MPa. The simulation tool simultaneously solves both Reynolds and energy equations for the oil film (3D temperature distribution) on the one hand and computes thermomechanical deformations of the pad on the other hand. The simulations are conducted for a single pad and are supported by boundary conditions taken from experiments. The results with regard to static bearing characteristics and pad deformation show good agreement with experiments. The impact of axial pad arching on operational safety parameters and load-carrying capacity are shown and compared to experimental results. It is shown that the axial deviation in film thickness Δh can be even higher than the minimum film thickness hmin. This leads to reduced hydrodynamic pressure build-up towards the axial edges and therefore significantly decreased safety parameters or load-carrying capacity. In order to reduce pad crowning, radial bores through the pad body are modelled to simulate the extraction of hot oil from the trailing edge. In the simulation, the hot oil is used to heat up the back of the pad for a decrease of radial temperature gradients and thus pad arching. It is shown that by extracting 0.4 l/s of hot oil, a decrease in axial pad crowning from Δh = 47μm to Δh = 26μm can be achieved and that this leads to a decrease of 7.8 K in maximum temperature and an increase of 5 μm in minimum film thickness respectively a gain of load-carrying capacity of 0.4–0.6 MPa.
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