Study on the prevention of spragging in a tilting pad journal bearing using the variation of preload

예압 변경을 통한 틸팅패드 저널베어링의 Spragging 방지에 관한 연구

Tilting pad journal bearings have been widely used in a high speed rotating machinery, such as steam turbines and gas turbines, owing to their inherent stability characteristics. However, some peculiar fatigue failure in the babbitt metal due to spragging has been continuously occurred at the leading edge of the upper pads. The spragging is defined as the pad vibration initiated on the upper unloaded pads in a tilting pad journal bearing. This paper describes both several kinds of bearing failure related with spragging and the theoretical investigation on the prevention of the spragging phenomenon using the variation of preload. Results show that positive preload(m>0.5) assures all pads remain statically loaded under all operating conditions. For the change of design parameter to prevent spragging, thermo-hydrodynamic lubrication and rotor dynamic analysis were performed to verify temperature limitation on bearing and vibration problems on rotor bearing system.