Design and performance analysis of a hydrodynamic lubricated conical sliding bearing

Conical bearing is one kind of radial-thrust hybrid bearing, which can carry radial and axial load at the same time. A hydrodynamic lubricated conical sliding bearing was designed and computational methods were used to analyze the lubrication and load carrying performance. The methodology employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD), based on the Navier-Stokes equation and a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) technique. Simulation results show that semi-conical angle, taper angle and tapered land to flat land ratio are the three important parameters of bearing design. Increase of the tapered land to flat land ratio and decrease of semi-conical angle are helpful to improve the load carrying capacity of the conical bearing. The design of the taper angle is affected by the viscosity of lubricating medium, large taper angle is suitable for high viscosity lubricant, while the small one is the opposite. Compared with radial and thrust combined bearing, conical bearing is more conducive to the cooling fluid flowing through. This kind of bearing is very suitable for the Shaft-less Rim-driven thruster of the underwater vehicle with high requirement for structure and size.