Analysis of hydrodynamic lubrication of partially textured infinitely long tilting pad thrust bearing

The paper studied the effect of partial dimple texture on the hydrodynamic lubrication performance of infinitely long tilting pad thrust bearing. Based on the Reynolds equation with the boundary condition of mass conservation cavitation, a two-dimensional theoretical model of hydrodynamic lubrication of partially dimple textured infinitely long tilting pad thrust bearing was developed. The Reynolds equation was solved by multi-grid method to simulate the hydrodynamic pressure distribution of partially dimple textured infinitely long tilting pad thrust bearing. Finally, the influence of area fraction ratio, location, depth, horizontal spacing and number of partial texture on hydrodynamic pressure lubrication performance were analyzed. The results showed that the error between the numerical solution which obtained by the two-dimensional partially textured infinitely long tilting pad thrust bearing model and analytical solution is small, so the hydrodynamic pressure lubrication performance of oil film can be effectively analyzed. When the convergence ratio is small, the effect of hydrodynamic lubrication can be enhanced by partial micro-dimple texture processed in the inlet region, and there is an optimal partial texture area fraction ratio to maximize the loading capacity of the oil film. However, when the convergence ratio is relatively large, the partial micro-dimple texture has little effect on the loading capacity of the oil film. The loading capacity of the oil film decreases with the increase of partial texture aspect ratio; the optimal depth of dimples can maximize the loading capacity of the thrust bearing, and the optimal depth of dimples decreases with the increase of convergence ratio. The loading capacity of the oil film decreases with the increase of the longitudinal spacing of the dimples and increases with the increase of the number of the dimples. The partial texture can effectively improve the tribological properties of tilting pad thrust bearing and enhance the loading capacity of the bearing. However, the geometric parameters of the partial texture interact with the convergence ratio of the bearing, and the optimal value of the combination of texture geometric parameters and the convergence ratio can maximize the loading capacity of the bearing. © 2021, Chongqing Wujiu Periodicals Press. All rights reserved.