Transient Analysis Of 3-Lobe Bearings Considering Surface Roughness Effect For A Gas Turbine

The performance of a 3-lobe bearing is investigated by means of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics analysis. Surface roughness effects were included in the computation of unsteady transient analysis of 3-lobe bearing, taking into account gravity. Each of the lobes is placed at a distance of 120 degree. In this paper K-Epsilon turbulence model is used. The 3-lobe bearing is designed in Gambit software, the journal is modeled as a “moving wall” with an absolute rotational speed of 6000 rpm. Design parameters like L/D ratio, total pressure distribution, surface roughness and lubricant flow properties like turbulent viscosity and velocity magnitude are considered for the analysis The flow is simulated using Ansys Fluent software.