Study on the thermoelastohydrodynamic performance of tilting-pad bearings for large-scale power units

In this paper, a thermoelastohydrodynamic model for tilting-pad bearing is developed. In our proposed model, the study of temperature field is characteristicly focused on the temperature change along the film thickness direction, and thermal-elastic deformation is calculated based on assumption that the pad is a cantilever beam. The model is described with the generalized Reynolds equation, the energy equation, the heat transfer equation, the force equilibrium equation and the deformation equation. Finite difference method is used to solve those equations. The characteristics of bearing and pad for large-scale power units, such as the oil pressure field of pad , the temperature field of oil film and pad, the thermoelastic deformation of pad, the power loss and the flow of tilting-pad bearing, are derived. With derived characteristics, we analyze the influence of power loss, flow, temperature of lubricant film, minimum film thinness of bearing, minimum film thickness of pad, maximum deformation, highest temperature, and maximum pressure caused by change of rotational speed.