MEASURING AND MODELING OF THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF COMPOSITE BEARING PAD MADE OF PLASTIC MATRIX AND FINE BRONZE ELASTIC SPRINGS

The viscoelastic properties of the normal PTFE plastic and strengthened PTFEplastic for bearing pad are measured. The mechanical properties of the composite material forbearing pad, which is made of the aforementioned plastics as matrix reinforced by fine bronzeelastic springs, are modeled and relaxation modulus of the material are presented. The differencebetween these two kinds of PTFE is studied. The results show that the complex modulus of PTFEplastics for bearing pad is higher than that of normal PTFE plastics.

Experimental study on the feasibility of alternative materials for tilting pad thrust bearings operating in transition to mixed friction

In hydrodynamic bearings traditional bearing alloys:Babbitts and bronzes are most frequently utilized.Polymer sliding layers are sometimes applied as a valuable alternative.Hard diamond-like carbon(DLC)coatings,which are also considered for certain applications may show some advantages,as well.Although material selection is of secondary importance in a full film lubrication regime it becomes important in mixed friction conditions,which is crucial for bearings with frequent starts and stops.Experimental research aimed at studying the performance of fluid film bearings in the specific operating regime,including the transition to mixed friction,is described in the paper.The tests were carried out on four tilting pad bearings of different material compositions:Steel/bronze,DLC/steel,steel/polyether ether ketone(PEEK),and steel/Babbitt.The tests comprised stopping under load and reproduction of the Stribeck curve by decreasing rotational speed to very low values,and observing the changes of friction force during the transition to mixed friction regime.Analysis of the transition conditions and other results showed clear differences between the tested bearings,illustrating the feasibility of less popular material compositions for bearings operating in specific conditions.More specifically,the DLC/steel bearing was demonstrating superior performance,i.e.lower friction,transition to mixed friction occurring at higher load,and more stable performance at start-stop regime over the other tested bearings.

Simulation and experiment of starting transient flow field of the hydrostatic bearing based on dynamic mesh method

A new method is developed to assess and analyze the dynamic performance of hydrostatic bearing oil film by using an amulets-layer dynamic mesh technique. It is implemented using C Language to compile the UDF program of a single oil film of the hydrostatic bearing. The effects of key lubrication parameters of the hydrostatic bearing are evaluated and analyzed under various working conditions,i.e. under no-load,a load of 40 t,a full load of 160 t,and the rotation speed of 1r/min,2r/min,4r/min,8r/min,16r/min,32r/min. The transient data of oil film bearing capacity under different load and rotation speed are acquired for a total of 18 working conditions during the oil film thickness changing. It allows the effective prediction of dynamic performance of large size hydrostatic bearing. Experiments on hydrostatic bearing oil film have been performed and the results were used to define the boundary conditions for the numerical simulations and validate the developed numerical model. The results showed that the oil film thickness became thinner with the increase of the operating time of the hydrostatic bearing,both the oil film rigidity and the oil cavity pressure increased significantly,and the increase of the bearing capacity was inversely proportional to the cube of the change of the film thickness. Meanwhile,the effect of the load condition on carrying capacity of large size static bearing was more important than the speed condition. The error between the simulation value and the experimental value was 4.25%.

Effect of abutment modeling on the seismic response ofbridge structures

Abutment behavior significantly influences the seismic response of certain bridge structures. Specifically in the case of short bridges with relatively stiff superstructures typical of highway overpasses, embankment mobilization and inelastic behavior of the soil material under high shear deformation levels dominate the response of the bridge and its column bents. This paper investigates the sensitivity of bridge seismic response with respect to three different abutment modeling approaches. The abutment modeling approaches are based on three increasing levels of complexity that attempt to capture the critical components and modes of abutment response without the need to generate continuum models of the embankment, approach, and abutment foundations. Six existing reinforced concrete bridge structures, typical of Ordinary Bridges in California, are selected for the analysis. Nonlinear models of the bridges are developed in OpenSees. Three abutment model types of increasing complexity are developed for each bridge, denoted as roller, simplified, and spring abutments. The roller model contains only single-point constraints. The spring model contains discrete representations of backfill, bearing pad, shear key, and back wall behavior. The simplified model is a compromise between the efficient roller model and the comprehensive spring model. Modal, pushover, and nonlinear dynamic time history analyses are conducted for the six bridges using the three abutment models for each bridge. Comparisons of the analysis results show major differences in mode shapes and periods, ultimate base shear strength, as well as peak displacements of the column top obtained due to dynamic excitation. The adequacy of the three abutment models used in the study to realistically represent all major resistance mechanisms and components of the abutments, including an accurate estimation of their mass, stiffness, and nonlinear hysteretic behavior, is evaluated. Recommendations for abutment modeling are made.

Surface roughness characteristics effects on fluid load capability of tilt pad thrust bearings with water lubrication

The effects of surface roughness characteristics on the fluid load capacity of tilt pad thrust bearings with water lubrication were studied by the average flow model.The flow factors utilized in the average flow model were simulated with various surface roughness parameters including skewness,kurtosis and the roughness directional pattern.The results indicated that the fluid load capacity was not only affected by the RMS roughness but also by the surface roughness characteristics.The fluid load capacity was dramatically affected by the roughness directional pattern.The skewness had a lower effect than the roughness directional pattern.The kurtosis had no notable effect on the fluid load capacity.It was possible for the fluid load capacity of the tilt pad thrust bearings to be improved by the skewness and roughness direction pattern control.

通过轴承升级实现涡轮机械的可靠运行

Common fluid film bearing issues(mainly high bearing temperature)preventing reliable operation of turbomachinery will be addressed.Atheoretical review of radial and thrust bearing performance will be included for a basic understanding on how to handle the bearing issues.Some theoretical plots will be presented to demonstrate the effect of key bearing design parameters on bearing performance.Advanced bearing materials beyond babbitt will also be introduced as bearing upgrade options to overcome bearing issues.Case studies on radial and thrust bearing upgrades to mitigate or eliminate the bearing issues will be shared.Some of the common vibration problems preventing reliable operation of turbomachinery will also be described with suggestions on how to eliminate or mitigate the problems via changes to bearing design features or new bearing technology.A couple of case studies representing each vibration problem will be presented.

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.

NUMERICAL RESEARCH ON WATER GUIDE BEARING OF HYDRO-GENERATOR UNIT USING FINITE VOLUME METHOD

With the consideration of the geometry of tilting pad journal bearing, a new form of the Reynolds equation was derived in this article. The film thickness, the squeeze motion of the journal and the rotation motion of the pad were explicitly contained in the equation. Based on this equation, together with the equilibrium equation of pad pivot, the water guide bearing used in the Gezhouba 10 F hydro-generator unit was numerically researched. The new Reynolds equation for the lubricating film was solved using Finite Volume （FV） discretization, Successive Over-Relaxation （SOR） iteration method and C＋＋ code are included. According to the numerical solution, and the stability of the film and the influences of the film thickness, the journal squeeze effect and the pad rotation effect on film force were discussed. The results indicate that the squeeze effect can not be neglected, although the rotation effect is negligible for both low-speed and high-speed bearings, so the computing time could be greatly reduced.