Thermal Turbulent Flow in Leading Edge Grooved and Conventional Tilting Pad Journal Bearing Segments—A Comparative Study

Abstract

A comparative study between a conventional- and leading edge grooved (LEG) tilting pad journal bearing (TPJB) segment is performed. The developed model uses the Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model, coupled with the energy equation and a partial differential equation for the fluid domain mesh displacement to predict the thermal flow characteristics. Instead of using an effective boundary condition to determine the inlet temperature of the LEG pad and excluding the additional LEG portion, as is common practice, the whole geometry of the LEG is modeled. Several sizes of the LEG portion is investigated and it is shown to have quite a small influence on pressure, temperature, film thickness and turbulence intensity. Moreover, the results also show that the conventional pad gives rise to higher levels of turbulence in the mid plane compared to its LEG counterpart, while the latter has a marginally higher value of turbulence when the volume average value is computed. The maximum value of turbulence is however present in the conventional model.