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.
Highlights
A thrust bearing is a vital component in many heavy machinery systems, for example in water turbines, where it carries the massive weight of the generator, the turbine as well as the shaft connecting them
This is accomplished by the bearings’ capability/ability to generate hydrodynamic pressure, in the fluid film between the rotating collar and the stationary bearing surface. It is a well-known fact that the bearing geometry plays a key role in generating the hydrodynamic pressure which, in turn, largely influences the overall performance of the bearing, i.e. the Load Carrying Capacity (LCC) and Friction Torque (FT)
In the last section the minimisation of the Coefficient of friction Torque (COT) on a thrust washer will be addressed, its geometry has its dimensions taken from the work by Yu and Sadeghi,[14] making the results comparable
Summary
A thrust bearing is a vital component in many heavy machinery systems, for example in water turbines, where it carries the massive weight of the generator, the turbine as well as the shaft connecting them This is accomplished by the bearings’ capability/ability to generate hydrodynamic pressure, in the fluid film between the rotating collar and the stationary bearing surface. In a business where maintenance stops the production and every extra percent of efficiency is important, reducing wear and power losses will potentially both reducing costs and increase profit from production. This is one of the main reasons that researchers curiously have been searching for the optimal bearing geometry, for quite some time
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