Thermal effects for conventional and water-cooled thrust bearing using finite difference method: comparative analysis

The present paper describes the thermal effect on a sector shaped pad extensively used in thrust bearings, which supports the heavy duty axial loads. Large hydrogenerator thrust bearings are susceptible to too much thermo-elastic deformation when oil film thickness is subjected to high pressure and temperature, which can even lead to the bearing failure. So as a remedy, this study is an effort towards reducing the oil film temperature by incorporating a suitable cooling treatment. The cooling circuit, in this study, essentially follows a path of hot spots observed by solving Reynolds equation, energy equation and generalised Fourier heat conduction equation. The numerical scheme followed during investigation is finite difference method (FDM). The water circuit developed is just beneath the Babbitt lining of the pads. It has been observed that the overall temperature has reduced significantly when compared with a traditional cooling systems.