Thermo-hydrodynamic analysis of tilting pad journal bearing with general purpose CFD software

This paper presents a prediction model for tilting pad journal bearings (TPJB), based on a general-purpose CFD software. Currently, the industrial manufacturers use ad-hoc proprietary codes for the design of TPJB and the prediction of their performance. However, apart from the input parameters defined by the code developer, the user can not modify the model. On the contrary, with a general-purpose software the user can implement modifications and exploit well developed toolboxes. In particular one can adopt up-to-date turbulence models and study fluid structure interaction with specific tools. A procedure was developed, based on ANSYS-CFX, to predict the static characteristic of a TPJB, such as load capacity, film temperature, flow rate and friction torque. A thermohydrodynamic model is presented and results, obtained with different boundary conditions, are compared.