The tilting pad journal bearing has widely used to support high pressure/high rotating turbine rotors owing to their inherent dynamic stability characteristics. However, fatigue damages in the upper unlcaded pads and the break of locking pins etc. by pad spragging were continuously taken place in the actual steam turbines. The purpose of this paper is to develope a new bearing model that can prevent bearing damage problem effectively by pad spragging in a tilting pad journal bearing. A new bearing model which has a wedged groove is suggested from the studies of spragging mechanism performed by previously research works. The spragging characteristics of the upper unloaded pad are studied experimentally in order to verify the reliability of a new bearing model. It can be known that the phenomenon of pad spragging nearly does not occur in the new bearing model under the various experimental conditions. And it is observed that any kinds of bearing failures by pad spragging does not detect in the application of actual steam turbines.