INFLUENCE OF TILT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CIRCULAR THRUST PAD BEARINGS OF VARIOUS RECESS SHAPES
Hydrostatic thrust bearing are widely used in industrial power plants and heavy industries to support axial thrust coming from rotating machinery. Hydrostatic thrust bearing in these machinery prevents direct metal to metal contact and provide low friction environment. Therefore, the performance of these machine is significantly affected by the performance of thrust bearing. Hydrostatic bearings also provide good fluid film stiffness and damping coefficients. usually the hydrostatic bearings utilizes some form of compensating elements [1-5]. The thrust bearing is usually designed to operate under parallel operation but tilt in thrust bearing is inevitable due to the manufacturing errors, thermal deformation and structural errors. Tilt in thrust bearing results as deterioration in bearing performance [6]. Tilt reduces the bearing load carrying capacity, fluid film thickness and increases fluid film temperature.