Static and dynamic characteristics of high-speed water-lubricated spiral-groove thrust bearing considering cavitating and centrifugal effects

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the static and dynamic characteristics of the high-speed water-lubricated spiral-groove thrust bearing (SGTB) considering cavitating and centrifugal effects. A turbulent flow lubrication model was established based on gas-liquid two phase flow, and the influence of cavitation and centrifugal force on the static and dynamic characteristics was analyzed for the SGTB. An experiment setup was developed to measure the static and dynamic characteristics of the SGTB. The result shows that the proposed model with cavitating and centrifugal effects is more accurate than that without those two effects, the effect of the cavitation and centrifugal force should be considered when the modified Reynolds number exceeds 0.3.