Numerical experiment on the properties of a radial hybrid lobe bearing with gas lubrication for ship turbo-machines

Gas-lubricated bearings are gaining ground in various industry application. Their use improves the efficiency of turbo-machines due to a number of important advantages like considerable reduction in friction energy losses, and, therefore, lower levels of noise and vibration, possible increase of rotor speed, extended service life, and no need for environment polluting lubricants. Application of gaslubricated bearings in ship power machinery is limited due to low load bearing capacity of the lubricating film. The purpose of these studies was to increase the load capacity of gas-lubricated bearings. The study results can be useful in development of friction units for shipboard turbo-machines. This paper presents a new radial hybrid gas-lubricated bearing design of enhanced capacity compared to existing bearing types. The mathematical model and software developed to estimate the characteristics of this radial hybrid bearing made it possible to conduct an experiment for investigating the properties of this type of bearings. For validation of the mathematical model it is required to perform a comparative analysis of physical and numerical experiments.