Friction and Lubrication of Large Tilting-Pad Thrust Bearings

Lubricants

Michał Wasilczuk¹ 

[1] Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Gdansk University of Technology, Narutowicza 11/12, Gdańsk 80-233, Poland; E-Mail

关键词: fluid film bearings;    tilting pad bearings;    energy efficiency;    friction losses;   

DOI  :  10.3390/lubricants3020164

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Fluid film bearings have been extensively used in the industry because of their unbeatable durability and extremely low friction coefficient, despite a very low coefficient of friction dissipation of energy being noticeable, especially in large bearings. Lubricating systems of large tilting pad thrust bearings utilized in large, vertical shaft hydrogenerators are presented in this paper. A large amount of heat is generated due to viscous shearing of the lubricant large tilting pad thrust bearings, and this requires systems for forced cooling of the lubricant. In the dominant bath lubrication systems, cooling is realized by internal coolers or external cooling systems, with the latter showing some important advantages at the cost of complexity and also, potentially, lower reliability. Substantial losses in the bearings, reaching 1 MW in extreme cases, are a good motivation for the research and development aimed at reducing them. Some possible methods and their potential efficiency, along with some effects already documented, are also described in the paper.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.