A Study on Hydrodynamic Analysis of Spiral Grooved Thrust Bearing for Locomotive Turbocharger

A large amount of thrust load is generated in turbocharger due to the pressure differential between turbine and compressor wheel. In industrial turbochargers, taper land thrust bearings are quite popular however, these bearing performance can be enhanced by the design and analysis of alternate thrust bearings. In the current article, the design methodology and bearing parameter analysis of an oil-lubricated spiral grooved thrust bearing (SGTB) for a high-speed locomotive turbocharger are elaborated. In the 1st phase of the research, the axial/thrust load is predicted by applying Newton’s second law, and the thrust load is found to be 4.54 kN for a design speed of 1,00,000 rpm. To carry the thrust load, a numerical hydrodynamic model for SGTB is developed using a non-linear Reynolds equation and is solved using the finite volume method and successive over-relaxation methodology for the static characteristics of the bearing. The bearing static characteristics analysis includes a prediction of pressure profile, film thickness, load carrying capacity, frictional torque, and power loss. Further, the influence of groove parameters such as groove angle, film thickness ratio, and number of grooves on the LCC of the bearing has been investigated using the AI technique (ANN and ANFIS). From this analysis, the obtained optimum values of film thickness ratio, number of grooves, and groove angle for the SGTB design are 0.5°, 6°, and 15°, respectively.