The purpose of this paper is the study of the distribution between the sliding and non-sliding regions of sliding/non-sliding pairs to improve the bearing capacity (W) of tilting pad thrust bearings (TPTB).
Based on the TPTB’s structure using six tilting pads, a hydrodynamics model of a tilting pad is established to calculate the pressure of the liquid film (p). At the boundary line between the sliding and non-sliding regions of the tilting pad, the mesh nodes are then established and optimized to improve the W of TPTB based on a genetic algorithm.
The optimization results show that, with the boundary line between the sliding and non-sliding regions distributed by the quadratic curve, when the liquid flows through the optimal sliding/non-sliding surfaces of these tilting pads, the p is significantly increased compared to p of the sliding/non-sliding regions distributed in a straight line. This helps to increase the pressure on more areas of the tilting pad surfaces. As a result, W of TPTB using the sliding/non-sliding region with the optimal boundary line is higher than W of TPTB using the sliding/non-sliding region with the straight boundary line and ignoring the sliding region by 11.4% and 42.8%, respectively.
Therefore, this optimization result should be referred and applied in the design of the sliding and non-sliding regions in tilting pad surfaces of TPTB to improve its working efficiency.
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