Investigation into the Evolution of Unsteady Flow of Lubricating Oil System in Guide Bearing of a Pump Turbine Unit

Abstract

Abstract The water-guide bearing lubricating oil system of pumped storage unit is prone to oil dumping and oil spillage during the start-up of the unit, which seriously threatens the safe and stable operation of the unit. In this study, a three-dimensional unsteady numerical simulation is performed to investigate the causes of oil dumping and oil spillage of a water-guide bearing lubricating oil system of a pumped storage power plant unit based on the VOF (volume of fluid) multiphase flow model and Realizable k-ε model. The unsteady flow characteristics inside the rotating oil basin and pump-type Pitot tube during the start-up process are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the change of the external characteristics of the lubricating oil system can be divided into two stages, the initial formation process of the lubricating oil flow and the stable circulation process of the lubricating oil flow. In the initial formation process, the pressure inside the rotating basin is uniformly distributed in the circumferential direction, and a high-pressure zone is generated near the inlet of the pump-type Pitot tube, driving the lubricant flow to the stationary basin above; in the stable flow cycle process, the internal lubricant flow velocity gradually decreases along the radius direction, and a large vortex zone appears behind the pump-type Pitot tube and at the inlet of it. This phenomenon leads to the lubricating oil pressure here to be lower than the saturation vaporization pressure, which may trigger lubricating oil atomization and then overflow from the seal ring. This study is committed to provide theoretical analysis and engineering reference for the investigation of the causes of oil dumping and oil spillage in the lube oil system of water guide bearings of pumped storage units.