A Global Approach of Thermal Effects Including Pad Deformations in Tilting-Pad Journal Bearings Submitted to Unbalance Load

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the response of a tilting-pad journal bearing submitted to an unbalance load. A pseudo-time transient analysis has been developed taking into account the effective viscosity of the lubricant, the thermal expansion of bearing elements, and the elastic pad deformations. At each time interval, and for each pad, an effective temperature of the film is deduced from an energy balance. First, a comparison between theoretical results and experimental data is presented for a four-shoe tilting-pad journal bearing subjected to a static load. Second, the influence of the thermal and pad flexibility effects on the journal center orbit, on the minimum film thickness and on the maximum pressure is studied for various unbalance loads. Both the viscosity variation and the operating clearances due to elastic and thermal deformations of the bearing elements have a great influence on the behavior of the bearing.