EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON THE PERFORMANCE-CHARACTERISTICS OF TILTING-PAD JOURNAL BEARINGS FOR SMALL L D RATIOS/

In the present paper an experimental investigation has been carried ou t on the steady state and dynamic performance characteristics of a til ting pad journal bearing. Pad temperature and oil temperature measurem ents have been made using a thermocouple measuring system. Coast down time experiments were conducted on a rotor bearing test rig, and the c oefficient of friction of tilting pad journal bearing has been found o ut experimentally. The deceleration vs. speed diagrams have been drawn for different length to diameter (L/D) ratios and for different loadi ng configurations. Stiffness and damping coefficients have been identi fied using an identification algorithm and the identified coefficients were compared with the theoretically predicted coefficients. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.