Resumo:
A theoretical and experimental analysis on the behavior of a hydrodynamic tilting pads
thrust bearing is presented. The experimental work was carried out on a vertical shaft test rig. The test bearing was a Kingsbury KV9” tilting pad thrust bearing consisted by six sector
shaped pads with spherical pivots positioned at 66% of the pad angle. A full description of the
test-rig, test-bearing and instrumentation is presented. Bearing friction torque and pad
undersurface temperatures, plus the oil temperatures at the inlet and outlet of the bearing
housing were measured for a wide range of rotational speeds, thrust loads and oil flow rates
delivered to the bearing. An attempt was also made for measuring the oil film thicknesses at
some points between the rotating collar and one of the pads. The theoretical work was based
on the isoviscous Reynolds equation for the hydrodynamic lubrication. The finite difference
method was employed to obtain the pressure distribution over a pad and a FORTRAN
computer program was developed for the calculation of the bearing operating parameters such
as load carrying capacity, friction torque, power losses, oil flow rates at the pad boundaries
and temperature rise. A series of tables and graphs were generated and, finally, a comparison
between the theoretical and experimental results is presented.
