Effects of support structure on lubricating properties of bi-directional thrust bearings

Huang Bin1,Wu Junling2,Wu Zhongde2,Jiao Lei1,Wang Leqin1(1.Institute of Chemical Machinery Engineering,Zhejiang University,Hangzhou,Zhejiang 310027,China;2.Department of Electrical Machinery,Harbin Institute of Large Electrical Machinery,Harbin,Heilongjiang 150040,China)

bi-directional thrust bearing;support structure;thermo-elastic deformation;lubricant performance;pumped storage unit

A three-dimensional thermo-elastic-hydrodynamic mathematical model of thrust bearing was set up and the boundary conditions was adopted for analysis of the effects of support structure on hydrodynamic lubrication performance of bi-directional thrust bearing in pump-turbine.The finite difference method was employed to solve the THD model,and the thermal-elastic deformations in the pad were obtained by the finite element software ANSYS11.0.The data transfer between the THD model and ANSYS11.0 was carried out automatically by an interface program.The calculation model set up in this paper was then applied to a calculating example.The oil film thickness distribution,oil film pressure distribution and pad temperature distribution were obtained.Good agreement between the theoretical calculating results and experimental test was obtained.On this basis,the static performance distribution and thermo-elastic deformation distribution on the pad surface of three different support disks were analyzed.The results show that improving lubricant performance can be obtained if the support structure is chosen correctly,and the thermo-elastic deformation distribution on the pad surface of cutting away disk or double-disk supported thrust bearing are better than the single-disk one,which leads to prior lubricant performance.