Influence on temperature profile in an oil film in thrust bearings using an embedded cooling circuitry beneath the pad surface: An experimental investigation

Abstract

This paper describes the design and development of a test rig, for the experimental assessment of performance characteristics of thrust bearing used in hydro power plants. This test rig has features to study experimentally the conventional pad-based thrust bearing and the newly designed water cooling enabled pad. In this paper, a cooling circuit designated as Circuit-I has been installed and then testing is performed. The shaft speed and axial load has been set at 1400 r/min and 5.0 kN. The lubricating oil used SAE-30 and inlet temperature of oil was maintained at 40℃. The main focus of the present work is to compute the influence on the temperature distribution in the oil film on the top surface of the pad with the embodiment of cooling circuit arrangement. From the experimental results, the overall reduction in the oil film temperature or on the top surface of the pad has been found to be 14% when the conventional thrust bearing set up is replaced by water cooling enabled pad of this kind.

Keywords

Hydrodynamic lubrication hot spots temperature profile thrust bearing pad cooling friction and wear experimental investigation in bearings

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