Behaviour of tilting-pad journal bearings in case of large manufacturing errors

The behavior of five-pad tilting-pad journal bearings in case of large manufacturing errors, is investigated by means of a parametric analysis in this paper. The sensitivity analysis was performed for several combinations of pad thickness in both load-on-pad (LOP) and load-between-pad (LBP) configuration using a TEHD model. Pad thickness machining errors cause different preload factor or clearance for each pad. Several cases of thickness variation and different rotational speed were studied. Numerical results show that machining errors have a strong influence on the dynamic coefficients and on the static behaviour.