Prevention of fluttering fatigue damage in a tilting pad journal bearing

Tilting pad journal bearings have been widely used to support high-pressure/fast rotating turbine rotors owing to their inherent dynamic stability characteristics. However, fatigue damage in the upper unloaded pads and the break of locking pins by pad fluttering continuously take place in actual steam turbines. The purpose of this paper is to develop a bearing model that can prevent bearing problems effectively using pad fluttering in a tilting pad journal bearing. A developed bearing model with a wedged groove is suggested from studies of a fluttering mechanism performed in previous research. The fluttering characteristics of the upper unloaded pad are studied experimentally in order to verify the reliability of the bearing model. It was found that very little pad fluttering nearly occurs in the bearing model under various experimental conditions. In addition, no type of bearing failures by pad fluttering was detected in applications involving actual steam turbines.