Numerical research on water guide bearing of hydro-generator unit using finite volume method

Abstract

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.