Characterization of High-Power Turbomachinery Tilting Pad Journal Bearings: First Results Obtained on a Novel Test Bench
1
Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lazzarino, 56122 Pisa, Italy
2
GE Oil & Gas, Via Felice Matteucci 2, 50127 Firenze, Italy
3
AM Testing srl, Via Padre Eugenio Barsanti 10, 56121 Pisa, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Lubricants 2018, 6(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/lubricants6010004
Received: 27 November 2017 / Revised: 29 December 2017 / Accepted: 3 January 2018 / Published: 6 January 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Friction and Lubrication of Sliding Bearings)
Tilting pad journal bearings are usually employed in turbomachines for their stable behavior at high rotational speeds. Devoted test rigs have been realized to validate the predictions of theoretical models. However, the design of new high-performance and large-size bearings needs to be supported by experimental investigations on high-performance large test rigs. The main characteristics of a recently built facility for testing large tilting pad journal bearings with diameters from 150 to 300 mm are described in this work. The test rig is versatile and can be used to test bearings of different size, configurations and to investigate the influence of many parameters, even the effect of misalignment. Sample results of the static characterization of a four-pad high-performance tilting pad journal bearing are reported evidencing some transient effects. A few sample dynamic results are also reported. The presented experimental results demonstrated the capabilities of the rig for investigating the static and the dynamic characteristics of the bearings accurately measuring slow and fast variables.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
tilting pad journal bearings; test rig; static and dynamic characterization; data acquisition; turbomachinery
▼
Show Figures
Graphical abstract
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Ciulli, E.; Forte, P.; Libraschi, M.; Naldi, L.; Nuti, M. Characterization of High-Power Turbomachinery Tilting Pad Journal Bearings: First Results Obtained on a Novel Test Bench. Lubricants 2018, 6, 4.
Show more citation formats
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit
