Performance Analysis and Geometrical Design of Spiral-Grooved Thrust Bearing Employing CFD Model

The structural parameter of spiral groove has a great influence to spiral-grooved thrust bearing. Unsuitable value of spiral groove will lead to the poor hydrodynamic performance of spiral-grooved thrust bearing, namely vibration, wear and impact contact. This study proposes a new computational model and conducts the performance analysis of spiral-grooved thrust bearing. Based on the Navier–Stokers equation, the hydrodynamic analysis model can be applied to illustrate the lubrication performance of oil film. And, the proposed simulation model can be demonstrated by the experiment data. Additionally, the effects of groove length, groove width and groove number on lubrication performance characteristics of spiral-grooved thrust bearing are investigated.