Influence of new surface micro-structures on the performance behaviours of fluid film tilting pad thrust bearings

Performance parameters such as power loss, minimum film thickness, and maximum oil temperature of the sector-shaped tilting pad thrust bearings employing the new micro-structural geometries on pad surfaces have been investigated. The lubrication equation incorporating the mass-conservation issue is discretized using the finite element method and the solution of resulting algebraic equations is obtained employing a Newton-Schur method. The pad equilibrium in the analysis is established using the Newton-Raphson and Braydon methods. The influence of attributes of micro-structures such as depth, circumferential and radial positioning extents have been explored on the performance behaviours. It is found that with the new micro-structured pad surfaces, the performance parameters significantly improved in comparison to conventional plain and conventional rectangular pocketed pads.