The Prediction of Dynamic Coefficients for Tilting-Pad Journal Bearings Based on an AGA-BP Neural Network

To provide real-time dynamic coefficients of tilting-pad journal bearings( TPJBs) for the dynamic analysis of a rotor-bearing system accurately,an improved error back propagation( BP) neural network model is built in this paper.First,the samples are gained by solving the Reynolds equation with the finite differential method based on hydrodynamic lubrication theory.Secondly,the adaptive genetic algorithm( AGA) is applied to optimize the initial weights and thresholds of the BP neural network before training.Then,with a number of trial calculations,the optimum parameters for the neural network are obtained.Finally,an application case of the neural network is given as well as the results analysis.The results show that the AGA can efficiently prevent the training of the neural network from falling into a local minimum,and the AGA-BP neural network of dynamic coefficients for TPJBs built in this paper can meet the demand of engineering.

Effects of Load Direction on Performance of Tiliting Pad Journal Bearings

At the previous works for tilting journal pad bearings （TPJBs）, most TPJBs are designed to operate with the load either directly on-pad（LOP） or directly between-pad（LBP）. However, in practice, in some cases, the load direction can change dramatically in operation. With the current requirements for the analysis of dynamic characteristics of the rotor-bearing systems, the effects of the load direction on the bearing performance must be known. So, in this paper, the effects of load direction on the static and dynamic characteristics of TPJBs are obtained with theoretical analysis based on the hydrodynamic lubrication theory, and the influence of load direction on the performance of TPJBs in different structure and operating parameters is also analysed. The results show that the load direction has considerable effects on the static and dynamic characteristics of the TPJBs, especially for the TPJBs that are operating under heavy load and high rotor speed. And for the operating condition that load direction changed rapidly, TPJBs with more pads, smaller length to diameter ratio, larger clearance ratio and smaller perload ratio can reduce the performance fluctuation with the variation of load direction.