Calculation of Thermal Deformation of Thrust-Bearing Pad Considering Convection by Non-uniform Oil Flow

Abstract

We described the characteristics and the calculation procedure of large-scale thrust bearings whose pads are surrounded by the non-uniform flow in an oil bath. The thermal deformation of the pad is comparable to the thickness of oil film, so we need to calculate it precisely. First, we calculated the characteristics of oil film, e. g., the thickness, pressure and temperature distribution. Second, using the temperature distribution in the oil film as one of the boundary conditions, we calculated the temperature distribution in the pad and the oil flowing around the pad using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. Third, taking into account the CFD result, we calculated deformation of the pad by a structural analysis code. We repeated these three steps until the deformation of the pad is converged. The calculated values for the thickness distribution of the oil film between the runner and the pad are consistent with the measured values. This confirms the importance of including the flow conditions in precisely calculating the deformation of the pad, and the computational process we presented is validated.