Spring-Supported Thrust Bearings Used in Hydroelectric Generators: Comparison of Experimental Data with Numerical Predictions

Yuan, J. H.; Medley, John B.; Ferguson, J. H.

doi:10.1080/10402000108982422

Cited by 20 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Yuan et al. 26 also mentioned that one advantage of this distributed spring support, especially with the larger size of bearing in this application, is the ability to control the deflections of the pad. Compared with the centrally supported tilting pad bearing, the bearing pad temperature can be significantly reduced, and the bearing capacity of the bearing is significantly increased. The support switch structure at the bottom end of the tile converts the centrally supported thrust bearing into a bi-directional offset supported thrust bearing, ensuring optimum offset in both directions. For the central support bearing and offset support bearing under both clockwise and counterclockwise conditions, their oil film thickness, oil film pressure, pad surface temperature, and motor energy input were tested in the experiment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to different requirements of bearing capacity and rotation direction, the offset position and the inclination angle of the tile can be accurately adjusted. Yuan et al 26 also mentioned that one advantage of this distributed spring support, especially with the larger size of bearing in this application, is the ability to control the deflections of the pad. Compared with the centrally supported tilting pad bearing, the bearing pad temperature can be significantly reduced, and the bearing capacity of the bearing is significantly increased.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A comparative experimental study on large size center and bi-directional offset spring-bed thrust bearing

Yang

Zheng

Jiang

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part J:

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The central support tilting thrust bearing is widely used in the motor-generator unit, and the central support tilting thrust bearing performs poorly compared with the offset bearing. In order to improve the performance of the thrust bearing capable of the bidirectional operation, a spring-supported switching tilting thrust bearing was designed, which could run under offset condition at both clockwise and counterclockwise. In order to verify the reliability of the bearing, we designed a true size thrust bearing test bench and measured the performance parameters of the temperature, pressure, oil film thickness, and power loss of the pad. This article introduces in detail the operation mechanism of the bidirectional offset spring-bed tilting thrust bearing. The bidirectional offset spring-bed tilting thrust bearing structure and the central support bearing structure were compared and tested. The test results of the performance difference of large tilting pad bearings with different structures were obtained. According to the experiment, the spring support structure has good adaptability, and the improved bidirectional offset support bearing not only has higher bearing capacity, but also has better performance in all aspects of temperature rise and loss than the central support bearing. The actual size experiment provides the experimental data for the theoretical calculation of large tilting pad bearings, providing a more accurate basis for the bearing performance and safety assessment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative experimental study on large size center and bi-directional offset spring-bed thrust bearing

Yang

Zheng

Jiang

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part J:

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“…The influence of temperature gradient on the behavior of tilting-pad bearings and the tilting angle as a function of speed subjected to hybrid lubrication has been reported by literature. 8 A comparison has been made by Yuan et al 9 between the experimental data and numerical predictions for a large springsupported thrust bearing with centrally placed ringshaped injection pockets and the numerical predictions were based on a model developed by Ettles. 10 A special design and arrangement have been introduced by some of the researchers just to improve the lubrication performance; nonetheless, the problems related to the thrust element thermo-elastic deformation, load-carrying capacity, transient responses are still persisting and continuously reported in literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence on temperature profile in an oil film in thrust bearings using an embedded cooling circuitry beneath the pad surface: An experimental investigation

Najar

Harmain

2019

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part J:

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This paper describes the design and development of a test rig, for the experimental assessment of performance characteristics of thrust bearing used in hydro power plants. This test rig has features to study experimentally the conventional pad-based thrust bearing and the newly designed water cooling enabled pad. In this paper, a cooling circuit designated as Circuit-I has been installed and then testing is performed. The shaft speed and axial load has been set at 1400 r/min and 5.0 kN. The lubricating oil used SAE-30 and inlet temperature of oil was maintained at 40℃. The main focus of the present work is to compute the influence on the temperature distribution in the oil film on the top surface of the pad with the embodiment of cooling circuit arrangement. From the experimental results, the overall reduction in the oil film temperature or on the top surface of the pad has been found to be 14% when the conventional thrust bearing set up is replaced by water cooling enabled pad of this kind.

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“…However, the accuracy of these codes is not clear, as there are few papers comparing theoretical and experimental results for large bearings. These examples are the results of the testing of a large bearing in a special unique test rig reported by Yuan et al [11]. Other published results of comparisons between calculations and field data were presented by Dąbrowski and Wasilczuk [12], where the object was a hydrogenerator bearing with a system of compensation of thermal deflections; by Wodtke et al [13], where the results of one of the largest thrust bearings in the world, installed in the Itaipu power plant were presented, and the method utilized was FSI (fluid structure interaction) combining a CFD (computational fluid dynamics) solution for a fluid film with a FEM (finite element method) solution for a solid structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field Tests on Hydrodynamic and Hybrid Operation of a Bidirectional Thrust Bearing of a Pump-Turbine

2017

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Abstract:In vertical shaft pump turbines operating in pumped storage power plants an important role is played by a thrust bearing. Due to the bidirectional character of operation, thrust bearing tilting pads have to be supported symmetrically, which is known to be unfavourable from the point of view of their performance. Large thrust bearings have to be carefully designed so as to minimise excessive thermo-elastic pad deformations. The research into fluid film thrust bearings has been quite extensive over the years, comprising theoretical studies of bearing properties with the use of more and more sophisticated calculation codes. On the other hand, the availability of experimental field data on bearing operation is limited, for obvious reasons. In this paper the authors present part of the results of extensive field tests of a large bearing of a pump-turbine they have conducted in a pumped storage power plant. Hopefully this data will be of interest to other researchers to compare theoretical predictions to measurement data.

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Spring-Supported Thrust Bearings Used in Hydroelectric Generators: Comparison of Experimental Data with Numerical Predictions

Cited by 20 publications

References 9 publications

A comparative experimental study on large size center and bi-directional offset spring-bed thrust bearing

A comparative experimental study on large size center and bi-directional offset spring-bed thrust bearing

Influence on temperature profile in an oil film in thrust bearings using an embedded cooling circuitry beneath the pad surface: An experimental investigation

Field Tests on Hydrodynamic and Hybrid Operation of a Bidirectional Thrust Bearing of a Pump-Turbine

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