Experimental performance evaluation of a lightweight additively manufactured hydrodynamic thrust bearing

In this paper, a lightweight additively manufactured (AM) fixed geometry hydrodynamic thrust bearing fabricated via laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is experimentally compared to a traditionally manufactured cast aluminum alloy thrust bearing of similar design. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how weight-saving design features in the AM bearing affect active critical hydrodynamic performance parameters to better understand in-service viability. Under various static operating conditions, performance parameters such as hydrodynamic pressure distribution, minimum oil film thickness (MOFT), bearing temperature and increase in oil temperature are measured. Compared to the traditionally manufactured bearing, the AM bearing showed an average increase in minimum oil film thickness of 53 %, an average increase in trailing edge hydrodynamic pressure of 116 %, while exhibiting an average decrease in bearing temperature of 1 %. Experimental results are compared to numerical simulation showing reasonably good agreement.