Analysis of heavy duty tilting-pad journal bearing taking into account pad distortion and possible adoption of rubber pad segments

In this work a comparative study has been made between the thermo-hydrodynamic performance of a three shoe tilting-pad journal bearing with rigid and elastic pads subjected to unbalance load. A case study of a bearing adopting three rubber pad segments has also been studied. The distortion of the elastic pad is introduced into the distribution of the film thickness through an iterative scheme to assess its effect on the load carrying capacity of the bearing. A finite element mesh is used to calculate the distortion of the elastic pad while a finite difference mesh is used to calculate the pressure field in the lubricant film. Results have shown a number of interesting conclusions regarding the adoption of rubber pad segments instead of tilting-pads. There is an increase in minimum oil film thickness when using elastic pad or even rubber pad segments compared with rigid pads. Also the maximum pressure and load carrying capacity are not significantly affected.