Hybrid bearing
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJohn H. Vohr, William H. Miller, Jeffrey J. Perkins
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hybrid bearing for a horizontal rotatable shaft includes an upper portion which is essentially a half section of a fixed arc journal bearing. The lower portion of the bearing is essentially the lower portion of a tilting pad bearing. Appropriate modifications are made to the oil film and drain lines and other peripheral elements to accommodate the hybrid nature of the bearing. The resultant bearing has the low power loss characteristics of the journal bearing, and additionally, the stability characteristics of a tilting pad bearing.
Claims15
A hybrid bearing for supporting a horizontally oriented, rotatable shaft on a film of oil, comprising:
- a housing for encasing an axial portion of said shaft, said housing having an upper and a lower portion;
- a fixed arc journal bearing disposed in the upper portion of said housing, said fixed arc bearing having a surface operationally disposed in close proximity to yet spaced from said shaft to allow oil to flow through the interstice between said fixed arc bearing surface and said shaft;
- at least a pair of arcuate tilting pads each pivotably disposed in the lower portion of said housing, each said pad operationally circumferentially disposed about a portion of said shaft, and each said pad having a pad bearing surface operationally including the film of oil and operationally disposed in close proximity to yet spaced from said shaft to support the rotating shaft on the film of oil;
- and
- means for channeling said oil to said fixed arc bearing surface and said tilting pad bearing surfaces, said means for channeling disposed between the leading edge of the fixed arc journal bearing surface and the proximate pad.
A hybrid bearing for supporting a horizontally oriented rotatable shaft on a film of oil, comprising:
- a housing for encasing an axial portion of the shaft, said housing having an upper and a lower portion;
- a journal bearing having a predetermined arcuate portion disposed in the upper portion of said housing, said journal bearing further having a surface operationally disposed in close proximity to yet spaced from the shaft for permitting oil to enter the space between said journal bearing and the shaft;
- at least two arcuate tilting pads, each tilting pad pivotably disposed in the lower portion of said housing, each said pad operationally circumferentially disposed about a portion of the shaft, and each said pad having a bearing surface operationally disposed in close proximity to yet spaced from the shaft for supporting the shaft on the film of oil to be operationally disposed between the shaft and the bearing surface of each pad;
- oil delivery means coupled to said journal bearing and disposed between the predetermined arcuate portion and the proximate pad, said oil delivery means delivering oil to the leading edge of said predetermined arcuate portion;
- and
- a temperature probe coupled to one of said at least two pads, said probe extending into said pad, spaced from the pad bearing surface and biased toward the bearing pad surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.