ai ENT alisl INTRODUCTION TO FLUID FILM BEARINGS John K. Whalen, P.E. Manager of Engineering TCE/Turbo Components & Engineering, Inc. Houston, TexasFLUID FILM BEARINGS & EFFECTS ABSTRACT wh John K. Whalen, PE TCE/Turbo Components & Engineering Fluid film bearings play an important role in today's high erformance rotating equipment. This paper will address ‘luid film bearings from early history through basic fundamentals and application. history, lubrication regimes, journal bearing fundamentals and thrust bearing fundamentals. BRIEF HISTORY [ aroma DWER’S EXPERINENTAL BEARINGS BEARING WITH AXIAL GROE \ — =A = oP | wruteo Lona BEARING (= 10 FIGURE 1 aves Topics covered include In the early 1800's a series of experiments were carried out in an attempt to further understand friction in railroad car bearings. Beauchamp Tower was commissioned to carry out these experiments. The rig he used is illustrated in figure 1. He partially immersed a shaft in a bath of oil and put the test bearing on top of the shaft as shown. As he was conducting the experiments he decided to attempt to introduce oil at the load point, that is at the top dead center of the bearing. He put a hole in the bearing’and while performing tests he found that oil was being pumped out of the hole. He puta plug in the hole but as he increased load the plug was forced out. At this point he realized that a pressure was being generated in the bearing, Tower then took pressure measurements all around the bearing. The plots in figure 2 are from his paper. Note the Dressure profile caused by the oil film. Based upon these lots Tower decided to modify the bearing as in the bottom sketch oil is distributed to axial grooves Shortly thereafter Osborne Reynolds in figure 1. Here the for oiling purposes. published a paper whichesi Oe Bie on a bearing tig Bod ooufay hurnal 6 inoker long Longitudinal Section of Brass sree coger (Proceedings Inve ME1SE2) Wall full ize figure 2 mathematically predicted the findings of Tower. In that Paper Reynolds derived the now famous "Reynolds Equation" a second order nonlinear differential equation. This is a very complicated equation that could only be solved by making numerous assumptions to simplify the mathematics. Not until the advent of high speed computers could the equation be appreciated to it's fullest. To this day the Reynolds equation is the governing equation used to analytically predict the performance of hydrodynamic bearings. Recently additional work has been performed to make the analyses even more accurate. These additional topics include accounting for the effect of heat conduction and convection, and the effect of bearing deformation due to thermal gradients and the applied hydrodynamic Load. LUBRICATION REGIMES Hydrodynamic bearings operate in three basic regimes (as illustrated in figure 3): 1. Boundary Lubrication 2. Mixed Film Lubrication 3. Full Film Lubrication Figure 4 is a classic ZN/P curve which is often used to determine the operating regime of a bearing. Note that Z is viscosity, N is rotor speed and P is the applied load. As speed is increased, load is lowered and/or viscosityBOUNDRY LUBRICATION LUBRICATION REGIMES ZNP Curve 7 viscoay (en) NeRotor speee (rpm) ae 5 touding (ps!) FULL FILW LUBRICATION oan MIXED FILM LUBRICATION increased, the ZN/P value a increases. In boundary lubrication there is metal to metal contact j-rronm |between the bearing surface and the rotor. In this case friction is == rio very high resulting. in high temperatures, friction and, of course, wear. In the second regime, mixed film, the surfaces are beginning the Separate due to hydrodynamic action, however RE 3 contact is still occurring. Eu Finally in the third case, full film lubrication, there is a full hydrodynamic film separating the rotor from the bearing. This is a crude method of predicting the operating regime since it does not actually take into account surface velocity, only rotor speed. It is useful however, for the majority of bearings found in critical process equipment. BABBITT Babbitt is used in most of todays hydrodynamic journal and thrust bearings, Babbitt has been used for many years and has the beneficial properties of embedability and conformability. Embedability is the characteristic that allows small dirt particles to safely embed in the babbitt without damaging the shaft. Most lubricating oils are filtered at about 25 microns and some down to 5 microns. Of course this does not help the dirt that may be downstream of the filters that can work its way into the bearing. Also, even a 25 micron particle can be damaging should it get between a hard bearing and the shaft. Conformability is the property that allows the babbitt to conform to the loads applied instead of damaging the shaft.It is not uncommon to see wiped babbitted bearings for any number of reasons. In these cases, if the babbitt was not present, major damage to the shaft’ would have occurred. The bottom line is that babbitt is used as the sacrificial element in the machine. It is easier to stock spare bearings, or have them repaired, than it is to have to deal with a damaged shaft. Most babbitt used today is ASTM B23 grade 2 which is 89% tin, 7.5% Antimony and 3.5% copper. Babbitt Thickness Journal bearings are often subjected to high vibratory loads. Bearings can fail due to babbitt fatigue if these dynamic loads are large and/or if the babbitt temperature is high. One way to avoid the problem of babbitt fatigue is’ to BABBITT FATIGUE STENGTH increase the fatigue EFFECT OF BABBITT THICKNESS strength of the babbitt. It has been found that a thin babbitt layer is much FATIGUE LIFE (hours) stronger in fatigue than a T thick layer. \ ie Figure 5 illustrates that babbitt thicknesses less than 10 mils are required to increase fatigue strength. It is not uncommon to see T T bearings with babbitt thicknesses of 5 to 7 mils. sm 3 30 645 3038 | his is an optimum thickness BABBITT THICKNESS (mils) when considering strength, ease of manufacture and the conformability and embedability characteristics of the babbitt. Figure 5 JOURNAL BEARINGS There are many different configurations of journal bearings in use today. We will concentrate on typical bearings ————|_ used in critical rotating (—— = juipment. Figure § e | Gfiubtrates the basic journal Gl a | bearing design. Brg Diameral Clearance they reduce the load pesiigett sr teenettseenaiany capacity of the bearing + Dam Are Length = 130 to 140 degrees even at low speeds. One from split ine wit rotation place where they are best aoe eet suited is in up loaded gear eae ee ee Aree shafts. When the gearbox Relit Track is unloaded the journal ~recommenced if rg loading < $0 psi rides in the lower half of consider i loading i between SO and 150 pi the bearing with extremely not recommended if loading > 150 pei light loads. As the load’ ~ Tracks width = 1/4 of bre width on the box increases the Example "bore, 4 long 9 mils clearance, 100 piload | Journal begins to ride in “Dam depths 9 it (ae Oto aa the upper half of the =Dam Ar loprees bearing and at full load the bearing is usually ~May use elit tack 1" wide heavily loaded upwards. The table above summarizes pressure dam design criteria. Tilting Pad Journal Bearings There are many high speed machines which cannot operate even with properly designed pressure dam bearings. This is due to the increasing speed of todays machines which is usually coupled with light rotors; both of which make a stable bearing design difficult.’ Tt is here that the tilting pad bearing is best suited. Figure 10 is a drawing of a five pad load on pad tilting pad journal earing. Note that the bearing surface is segmented into 5 shoes | which are free to pivot. With a tilting pad bearing the pad tilts to achieve the attitude 1 angle between the journal and the posting pad. The attitude angle of the shaft to the bearing is very neariy zero. As such the cross coupling terms are zero. This results in an optimum bearing design from a rotor stability standpoint. Tilting pad bearings have several more design parameters to consider. These include: 1. Number of pads 2. Pad orientation (on pad or between pad) 3. Pad length4. Oil flow 5. Pivot location 6: Pad preload Most of these terms are easy to understand. Preload, however, can be difficult to understand. Preload is’a term that is’used to describe the difference between the pad radius of curvature and the bearing clearance circle radius. The equation for preload i preload bearing set clearance bearing bore - shaft diameter Pad clearance pad bore - shaft diameter cp = As an example a bearing with 5 mils set clearance and 10 mils pad clearance has a 0.5 preload. A negative preload is undesirable because this may inhibit the formation of the oil film due to the lack of an adequate converging wedge. A zero preload is what a plain sleeve bearing essentially has. A positive preload encourages the PAD TICTING formation of the film by SUES increasing the inlet dimension of the converging wedge. The effect of preload usually varies from machine to machine. Preload is usually designed to be in the .2 to .5 range. A zero preload is usually avoided so as the minimize the chance of a negative preload due to tolerance effects. s ee 4 | Figure 11 illustrates the | a ae action of a tilting pad. | agree Note that for the example case the pad only tilts about .1 degrees which is only a2 mil pad edge a movement. Also note that eg the maximum pad temperature mee is about 75% downstream from e the leading edge. THRUST INGS Figure 12 illustrates three basic types of hydrodynamicGROOVE FLAT LAND, TAPER SECTION THRUST BEARING TYPES TAPERED SECTION FLAT LAND NON EQUALIZED TILTING PAD (CENTER PIVOT) FIGURE 12 EQUALIZED TILTING PAD «OFFSET PIVOTthrust bearings in use today. The top drawing is a tapered land thrust bearing. In this bearing the thrust face is divided into several pads. Each pad has a tapered section followed by a flat land. ‘The tapered section provides the converging wedge needed to establish the oil film. The flat land section is basically used as a bumper thrust for the instances when the film has not yet been developed. The middle figure is a non-equalized tiling pad thrust bearing. With this bearing design the pad is free to tilt to form the oil film. This is better than the tapered land bearing for the following reasons: 1. No flat land is required 2. The pad will tilt to an optimized position. With the tapered land bearing design the taper can only be optimized for one load case. 3. O11 flow can be controlled by orifices between the pads. Oil is also free to flow behind the pads thereby cooling the bearing and increasing load capacity. The bottom figure is an equalized tilting pad thrust bearing With this design a set of leveling links is used to equalize the thrust load over the face of the bearing. Since the bearing and collar can never be exactly parallel to each other the equalizing acts to increase the load capacity of the bearing. Of course the more misalignment between the bearing and collar the more effective the equalized bearing will be. The equalized tilting pad thrust bearing is the bearing of choice for todays high performance turbomachinery. Figure 13 summarizes the design limits of thrust bearings. This is a plot of load vs. speed for a generic thrust bearing design. Note that at low speed the limiting factor is the thickness of the oil film. A normal design practice is to design for a minimum film thickness of 1 mil. However film thicknesses of as little as 0.5 mils have been used. PAD TEMPERATURE LIMIT MECHANICAL LIMIT Pie FILM THICKNESS ,7 LOAD —& REGION OF SAFE OPERATION SHAFT SPEED —> FIGURE 13At high load the limiting factor is the mechanical strength of the bearing and its components. Normal max design load is in the 500 to 800 psi range but loads in excess of 2000 psi have been encountered. At higher speeds the limiting factor is the operating temperature of the bearing. Most machines run in this range where both loads and speeds are high. An effective way to combat high thrust bearing temperatures is to use copper alloy thrust pads with directed lubrication. Copper alloy pads are used extensively because of their superior heat dissipation properties. Figure 14 demonstrates the effect of the pad material on the bearing operating temperature. Note that bronze is about 50% more heat conductive than steel but the copper is 450% more. EFFECT OF PAD BACKING MATERIAL ON PAD CIRCUMFERENTIAL TEMPERATURE. Temperature (deg F) 70 Directed lubrication is also used extensively. The benefit here is due to the introduction of cool oil directly at the leading edge of the bearing pad. i eas 0. 0 10 20 90 «> 50 60 7% 60 60 100 % of Pad Are figure 14 Running the bearing in an evacuated environment (instead of flooded with oil) also acts to lower pad temperatures and cut by 50% the power loss of the bearing. The OD of the thrust cellar is the highest surface velocity part of the collar. As such the churning oil acts as a drag on the collar OD contributing to the overall power loss of the bearing. Churning oil between the pads also acts to increase power loss. The heat put into the oil by this churning causes the oil introduced to the pad leading edge to be warmer than the inlet oil thus resulting in higher bearing temperatures. CONCLUDING REMARKS It is difficult to try and address all of the pertinent areas of bearing design and application. It is also difficult to Giscuss bearing dynamics without going into rotordynamics. Hopefully this paper has covered the basics of babbitted bearings and will prove useful in understanding their application.REFERENCES Nicholas, John C., "Fundamental Bearing Design Concepts For Fixed Lobe And Tilting Pad Bearings," Drésser-Rand Technical Publications, 1987, p51. Fuller, Dudley D., Theo! Engineers, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1984. Nicholas, John C., John K. Whalen, Sean D, Franklin, "Improving Critical Speed Calculations Using Flexible Bearing Support FRF Compliance Data," Proceedings of the 15th Turbomachinery Symposium, Turbomachinery Laboratories Department of Méchanical Engineering, Texas ASM University, College Station, Texas (1986). Wilcock, Donald F. and £. Richard Booser, Bearing Design and Application, 1st Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc., 1957. Zeidan, Fouad ¥., and Bernard S. Herbage, "Fluid Film Bearing Fundamentals and Failure Analysis," Proceedings of the 20th Turbomachinery Symposium, Turbomachinery Laboratories, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas (1991). Nicholas, John C., "Stabilizing Turbomachinery With Pressure Dam Bearings," Dresser-Rand Technical Publications, 1987, p95. Martin, F. A., "Tilting Pad Thrust Bearings: Rapid Design Aids,"’vol 184, Pt 3L Proceedings of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, London, 1970. Pincus, Oscar, "The Reynolds Centennial: A Brief Histo: of the theory of Hydrodynamic Lubrication,” ASME Paper 86- Trib-22 (1986). McHugh, J. D. "Principles of Turbomachinery Bearings,” Proceedings of the 8th Turbomachinery Symposium, Turbomachinery Laboratories, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.SL REIN} ENGINEERING opucTS AND SE Journal bering 1 Feed and ting 0¢ thrust bearings RVICES. Besringhousing il eais