Influence of Shaft Misalignment on Water Lubricated Turbine Sliding Bearings with Various Bush Modules of Elasticity

Hydropower industry increasingly frequently uses water lubricated bearings in turbines. This stems from the lack of negative impact of such solution on the environment. The paper presents an analysis of the influence of shaft misalignment in a turbine with water lubricated main shaft bearing on its hydrodynamic capacity. The theoretical analysis was based on the results of calculations for experimentally verified elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model. The obtained results showed impact of the stiffness of bush material and the degree of misalignment on bearing's hydrodynamic capacity.