Temperature Analysis of a Thrust Bearing Pad in Consideration of Oil Film Heat Transfer

Abstract

A computer program was developed to analyze the characteristics of a Michell typed thrust bearing pad. Both the Reynolds and the adiabatic energy equations were solved to determine pressures and temperatures in the oil film. Thermal and pressure deformations of the pad were decided by FEM. Calculated values for both the pressure distribution in the film and the balanced state of the pad compared fairly well with measured values, but calculated film temperatures showed a systematic deviation. Heat transfer terms were added to the energy equation following Vohr's theory, in order to achieve practical improvements by means of some assumptions. Questions and tentative solutions about the nonadiabatic energy equation are discussed and reported here, including how to fix the heat transfer coefficients. The new equation was a applied to a factory experiment, which seemed to reveal a defective feature in the energy equation.