Thermohydrodynamic Analysis and Thermal Management of Spherical Spiral Groove Gas Bearings

ABSTRACT

A thermohydrodynamic model of spherical spiral groove bearings is presented by considering the effect of bearing temperature change on the material property of lubricant, gas flow characteristics in the grooves, and thermal energy transported in the entire bearing system. A gas mixing model in the grooves is introduced as the boundary condition to solve the bearing temperature distribution simultaneously with the heat conduction at the shaft and the housing. The bearing and rotor expansion caused by temperature increases, which is considerable compared to bearing clearance, is also examined. Prediction results show that the thermal expansion determined by actual bearing clearance has a crucial influence on the bearing load capacity. Manufacturing bearings with proper materials has significant effects on controlling thermal expansion effects on the bearing performance. The load capacity, which corresponds to the lubricant gas pressure, and gas suck flow rate have the same variation tendencies as the variation in groove depth and spiral angle. These similar tendencies have an opposite influence on the temperature and result in the temperature increase not being affected by the variation in grooves. However, varying the groove characteristics has a similar effect in carrying away the thermal energy as the variation in heat transfer coefficient, which could significantly control the temperature increase at the same time.

KEYWORDS:

• Spherical spiral groove bearings
• THD analysis
• simple gas mixing model
• thermal growth
• energy transport

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51575170) and the National Key Technology Support Program of China (2015BAF32B01).