Failure Analysis Of Tilting Pad Sliding Bearing

The production in petroleum chemical industry has continuity, so the equipment operation needs a long-term stable condition. The centrifugal compressor, as the crucial equipment providing gas pressure in petroleum and chemical industry, will cause great loss once halting failures occur. Tilting pad journal bearing, as its key part, whose running stability has a significant meaning in improving the compressor’s stability, safety and economy operation, as well as prolonging service life. However, the area of petroleum chemical industry generally belongs to heavy industrial area, which is of poor air quality and environmental pollution. As a result, the failure of tilting pad journal bearing becomes more frequent.Taking tilting pad journal bearing as research object, finding out parts of the reason for bearing failure, this topic analyzed the accident scene of compressor and conducted three studies from the perspective of failure causes:Part 1, Research bearing wear, confirming the relationship between wear failure and lubrication condition, observing the worn microstructure with SEM, identifying wear forms and analyze the damage position along with the development process.Part 2, According to the experiment of oil analysis, observe the performance parameters, contained particles and pollution levels of the failure bearing oil, finding out the failure cause of bearing pad lubrication, and propose the test data when replacing the lubricating oil.Part 3, Study the theory and application software of flow field analyzing, using numerical simulation technology and computer aided software such as Pro/E, Fluent, obtaining the turbulent flow status in the bushing, analyzing the formation station of oil slick under bearing pad’s running condition.Through experiments and analysis results of tilting pad journal bearing’s wear, lubrication and oil film, propose several suggestions to improve the bearing operation:Firstly, as some wear in pad’s outlet side could be observed obviously in thismaintenance records, it is suggested the position of pad fulcrum is optimized for the tilting pad journal bearing.Secondly, based on the conclusion of particles and oil pollution in oil analysis, guide the alarm value of oil field monitoring. And if the oil needs replacing, it should be replaced all, partial supplement of new oil is not appropriate.Thirdly, on the premise of retaining bearing’s shape and dimension, make sure the oil heating process is in good place when the bearing firstly starts. So it will significantly improve the dry friction phenomenon caused by high pressure when firstly starting.