Static characteristics of aerodynamic tilting-pad journal bearings

This paper presents a numerical treatment to effectively calculate the static characteristics of the full tilting-pad gas bearings by means of the finite element method. The dimensionless results obtained by analyzing the full three-pad tilting-pad bearings cover the eccentricity ratios from 0.0 to 0.95, the bearing preload coefficient from 0 to 0.4, the bearing number from 0.1 to 4.0 and the bearing length-to-diameter ratios from 0.8 to 2.0. Simultaneously, the results under different eccentricity ratios are compared with those of the previous references to confirm that the treatment is effective to predict the static performances of this kind of bearings. The numerical results indicate that these parameters of the bearing all have very pronounced effect on the static performances of this type of bearings. With these parameters increasing, the load capacity of the bearings and the friction between the surface of the journal and the bearing become larger, and other coefficients also change. That is to say, the static performances of the bearings could be enhanced by change these parameters. The results could be extended analytically to more bearings with similar sizes and aspect ratios.