Tribo-behavior of a spiral-grooved annular pocket hybrid tilted thrust pad bearing

Hybrid/hydrostatic thrust pad bearings are generally designed to work under parallel operation. However, due to structural deformation, manufacturing, and assembly errors, the tilt effect cannot be avoided. In the present work, the influence of the tilt effect on the performance of annular pocketed hybrid thrust pad bearings compensated with orifice restrictors has been analyzed. The influence of rectangular and circular geometric shapes of spiral micro-grooves has also been studied. A source code has been developed in MATLAB software to solve the governing modified Reynolds equation using the finite element method. The numerical simulation shows that the tilt effect reduces the value of fluid film reaction and enhances the bearing fluid film stiffness and damping coefficients. It has also been observed that rectangular-shaped spiral micro-groove offers a larger stiffness coefficient than non-grooved and circular-shaped spiral micro-groove.