Numerical and experimental investigation on the performances of a liquid metal bearing with spiral groove structures

Liquid metal is a perfect lubricant due to its low melting point, good fluidity at room temperature, higher thermal conductivity and high temperature stability. In this work, the novel hydrodynamic liquid metal bearing with spiral grooves is studied. Influences of the eccentricity, the bearing radius clearance, and the groove structural parameters on the pressure distributions and the load carrying capacity of journal liquid metal bearing are deeply numerically investigated. Meanwhile, the bearing clearance and the structure parameter of herringbone grooves on pressure distribution and load carrying capacity of thrust liquid metal bearing are also numerically conducted and experimentally validated. Numerical studies are conducted based on the finite element method. Results show that the pressure distribution and the load carrying capacity of journal liquid metal bearing are significantly affected by the eccentricity, the bearing clearance and the groove structural parameters. Specifically, for journal bearing, the load carrying capacity increases with the growth of the eccentricity and the groove spacing, while it decreases with the increase of radius clearance, the groove depth and the groove ridge ratio. Besides, it turns out that when the spiral angle is larger than 37.5 degree, the increase of the groove spiral angle results in a decrease of the load carrying capacity, while when the spiral angle is lower than 37.5 degree, the value of load carrying capacities at different spiral angle depends on the specific value of eccentricity. As for thrust bearing, the load carrying capacity increases with the decrease of bearing clearance, and the increase of groove depth. Besides, the groove numbers of 13 and the angle between two vertices of herringbone groove of 13 degree are beneficial for improving the load carrying capacity of thrust liquid metal bearings. Based on the above observations, optimal design parameter sets are selected to obtain much higher load carrying capacities up to four times for both journal and thrust bearings compared with the bearings with original parameters.