Application of topological optimisation methodology to hydrodynamic thrust bearings

Abstract

The bearing geometry has a big impact on the performance of a hydrodynamic thrust bearing. For this reason, shape optimisation of the bearing surface has been carried out for some time, with Lord Rayleigh’s early publication dated back to 1918. There are several recent results e.g. optimal bearing geometries that maximise the load carrying capacity for hydrodynamic thrust bearings. Currently, many engineers are making an effort to include sustainability in their work, which increases the need for bearings with lower friction and higher load carrying capacity. Improving these two qualities will result in lower energy consumption and increase the lifetime of applications, which are outcomes that will contribute to a sustainable future. For this reason, there is a need to find geometries that have performance characteristics of as low coefficient of friction torque as possible. In this work, the topological optimisation method of moving asymptotes is employed to optimise bearing geometries with the objective of minimising the coefficient of friction torque. The results are both optimised bearing geometries that minimise the coefficient of friction torque and bearing geometries that maximise the load carrying capacity. The bearing geometries are of comparable aspect ratios to the ones uses in recent publications. The present article also covers minimisation of friction torque on ring bearing geometries, also known as thrust washers. The results are thrust washers with periodical geometries, where the number of periodical segments has a high impact on the geometrical outcome.

Numerical micro-texture optimization for lubricated contacts—A critical discussion

“…The methodology was verified through comparison with the Rayleigh step-bearing [341] and successors [342][343][344][345][346][347][348][349][350]. One important result they found, was that increasing the mesh resolution unravelled features contributes to the increased load-carrying capacity and decreased friction [339,340]. Other results of interest are the outstanding performance and topographies of the optimised thrust bearings and washers (Fig.…”

“…In the series of papers, Kalliorinne et al [338][339][340] adapted and applied the globally convergent method of moving asymptotes (GC-MMA) optimisation methodology to optimise the geometry of HL bearings. They used the film thickness as control variable and considered the load-carrying capacity, the coefficient of friction, and the frictional torque as the optimised | https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/friction targets.…”

“…More significant effects can be achieved by partially texturing the contact inlet or reversal points of motion. In case of rotating parallel contacts, optimal texture parameters can be found, especially aspect NSGA (direct) [70] Adjoint optimization technique (direct) [89] GA (direct) [32,33] SQP (direct) [49] GA-SQP (direct) [68,69] Parallel HL contacts GC-MMA (direct) [338][339][340] GA (direct) [75,76] Interior-point algorithm (direct) [77] Converging HL contacts PSO (direct) [88] MOP + GA (indirect) [133,137] EHL contacts ANN (indirect) [138] 1794…”

Texture shape optimization induced higher load carrying capacity of sealing ring based on improved PSO algorithm

“…9 In recent years, there are some studies on the optimization of the texture structure and texture depth distribution using the optimization algorithms. 10 In terms of the texture shape optimization, Hashimoto et al 11 proposed a hybrid method based on the SQP (sequential quadratic programming) to optimize the texture shape of air bearings by taking the film stiffness and the friction torque as objectives. Fesanghary et al 12 searched for the periodic texture shape that could achieve the maximum LCC based on the SQP algorithm.…”

Tribological analysis of picosecond laser partially textured thrust bearings with circular grooves machined: Theory and experiment

“…Partially textured pad thrust bearings may act similar to tilted and step pad thrust bearings. 9 Optimizing thrust washers with periodical geometries can minimize the friction coefficient torque and maximize the load-carrying capacity, 10 but thrust washers with periodical geometries mainly play a role in pocket bearing, which is a kind of macro-texture.…”