Title: Thermal effects for conventional and water-cooled thrust bearing using finite difference method: comparative analysis

Authors: Farooq Ahmad Najar; G.A. Harmain

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Srinagar 190006, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Srinagar 190006, India

Abstract: The present paper describes the thermal effect on a sector shaped pad extensively used in thrust bearings, which supports the heavy duty axial loads. Large hydrogenerator thrust bearings are susceptible to too much thermo-elastic deformation when oil film thickness is subjected to high pressure and temperature, which can even lead to the bearing failure. So as a remedy, this study is an effort towards reducing the oil film temperature by incorporating a suitable cooling treatment. The cooling circuit, in this study, essentially follows a path of hot spots observed by solving Reynolds equation, energy equation and generalised Fourier heat conduction equation. The numerical scheme followed during investigation is finite difference method (FDM). The water circuit developed is just beneath the Babbitt lining of the pads. It has been observed that the overall temperature has reduced significantly when compared with a traditional cooling systems.

Keywords: hydrogenerator bearings; thrust bearings; hydrodynamic lubrication; bearing failure; hot spots; FDM; finite difference method; cooling systems; thermal effects; thermo-elastic deformation; oil film thickness; pressure; temperature; Babbitt lining; water cooling circuit; thrust pads.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPTECH.2015.069970

International Journal of Precision Technology, 2015 Vol.5 No.1, pp.14 - 26

Received: 01 Jul 2014
Accepted: 29 Sep 2014
Published online: 18 Jun 2015 *

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