Heat convection coefficients of a tilting-pad journal bearing with directed lubrication

This paper investigates the impact of heat transfer between leading and trailing pad free surfaces and the space between pad regions of high-speed tilting-pad journal bearings. General influence on pad metal temperature distributions as well as magnitudes of resulting heat convection coefficients are theoretically analyzed and validated with test data for sliding speeds up to 94 m/s and specific loads up to 3M MPa. Results indicate significant impact of trailing pad free surface heat transfer on maximum pad metal temperatures as well as potential for optimization based on the general flow pattern. Moreover, limitations, extensions, and improvements of the presented study are comprehensively discussed.