Siemens Power Generation
The journal bearings which support a
steam turbine rotor have several functions:
They determine the radial position of the
rotor within the turbirle casing, they supp-
ort the weight of the rotor, absorb its un-
balance forces and reduce the vibration
of the shaft due to their damping characte-
ristics.
A typical arrangement of turbine journal
bearings is shown in Fig.1.
Siemens industrial turbines employ only
force-lubricated sliding-contact bearings
because they are subject to no wear in
continuous operation and can exert large
damping forces on shaft vibration.
2
The bearings are designed so that
throughout the operating speed range a
hydrodynamically generated film of oil is
formed between the shaft journal and the
bearing shell.
With a journal bearing the vibration cha-
racteristics of the turbine rotor are no
Ionger determined by the rotor alone but
to a considerable extent by the properties
of the supporting oil film as weil. The
hydrodynamic film of oil is produced
because the bearing shell is greater than
the shaft journal.
This causes a wedge-shaped gap filled
with lubricating oil to be formed between
the two when the journal is resting in the
bearing.
As soon as the shaft journal beg ins to
rotate the oil is drawn into the gap by the
journal due to its viscosity. SinGe oil is
practically incompressible it means that
the narrowing-down of the wedge-shaped
gap will cause an increase in the pressure
of the oil in the gap.
This pressure raises the journal until The increasein friction is sharply reduced
equilibrium has been established bet- by the decreasein oil viscosity.The hydro-
ween the external bearing forces and the dynamic oil film forms in no way symmetri-
resultant oil film. A typical graph of the cally to the directionof the bearingforce.
pressure in the supporting oil film is In fact the shafttends to "climb up" the
shown in Fig. 2 bearingshell in the directionof rotations
as the speed increases,but so thai the
As the shaft speed rises the thickness of
centreof the shaftjournal comes Glaser
the oil film increases, but so too does the
and Glaserto the centreof the bearing
friction because of the increased shearing
shell.The journal tends to run ever more
forces in the oil film so that the oil tempe-
centrallyin the shell.
rature reduces the viscosity of the oil with
the result that the friction is reduced com- When the shaft is being started up it is
pared with constant oil viscosity: possiblefür there to be metal-to-metal
contact betweenthe bearingjournal and
the surfaceof the bearing shell.In order to
preventany damage to the bearing
should such metal-to-metalcontact occur
it is necessaryto choose a suitablepairing
of materialsfür the journal and shell.Ifthe
turbine fjeld low-alloycarbon steelfür the
journal and white metalfür the running
surface of the bearing shell have proved to
be ideal.

~
The limits of carrying capacity of a journal These conditions are shown in Fig. 3 by
bearing are determined by two criteria: limit curve "1".

1. The minimum permissible thickness ot Hence, the maximum permissible loads

oil film between the shaft and bearing
shell.
2. The maximum permissible temperature
of the bearing white metal.
The thickness of the oil film must not fall
belowa certain minimum value at opera-
ting speed so that slight misalignments of
the shaft or overloads do not Gauge metal-
to-metal contact at high speeds. For a
given bearing and oil viscosity the thick-
ness of the oil film is a function of the cir-
cumferential velocity and the bearing
force. If a specific oil film thickness is re-
quired a particular circumferential velocity
will be related to a specific permissible
bearing force or average load per unit
area. The greater the circumferential velo-
city the greater the carrying capacity of a
given thickness of film.
per unit area are the same für both small
and large bearings at any particular ope-
rating speed, the relationship between
speed and carrying capacity being linear
as a first approximation.
The temperature of the oil film in the
wedge gap, however, rises with increasing
speed, the oil film thickness remaining
constant, so that the maximum permissible
temperature of the white metal is reached
("A" in Fig. 3).
With further increases in speed, the per-
missible loading is governed by limit curve
"2" für which the maximum oi! film tempe-
rature is equal to the limit temperature.

4
The oil film thickness increases along this
curve with rising speed as the permissible
loads are now below those tor constant oil
film thickness.
The white metallining of the bearing will
be destroyed at a temperature of approx.
145°C.lfthe maximum permissible opera-
ting temperature is taken to be 110°C the
safety margin to 145°C corresponds to
more than a doubling of the load.
For journal bearings the fatigue strength of
the whitemetal places no limit on the per-
missible load per unit area.
The criteria of "minimum oil film thickness"
and "maximum white metal temperature"
introduce limits which are far below that of
the fatigue strength.
Journal bearings are made in other forms
than the plain sleeve bearing in which the
bearing shell diameter is greater than the
diameter of the shaft journal by the amount
of the bearing clearance. There are also
the multiple oil wedge bearings in which
the contour of the shells is made such as
to form not just one wedge-shaped oil film
at the circumference but several in order
to hold the bearing forces in equilibrium.
The number of oil wedges has an impor-
tant effect on the principal properties of
the bearing such as carrying capacity,
shaft unbalance vibration damping and
stability against self-induced oil-whip at
high speeds.
The double oil-wedge bearing has two
bearing shell segments enclosing the
shaft journal, whereas the four oil-wedge
bearing has four bearing shell segments.
The included arcs of all these bearing shell
segments are tangential to a common
circle of diameter equal to that of the shaft
journal plus the bearing clearance. The
radius of the bearing shell segments is
greater than that of the common circle
and that of the four-wedge bearing is
greater than that of the double-wedge
bearing. In the plain sleeve bearing the
radius of the bearing shells is identical to
that of the common circle.
The geometry of the symmetrical multiple
oil-wedge bearing is shown in Fig. 4.
5
 The carrying capacitydecreaseswith the However, in addition to the induced shaft
increasingnumber of bearingshell seg- vibration self-excited vibration also plays a
ments becausethe oil film forces of the part. It can be caused by instability of the
individualshells representsforce vectors oil film in the bearing (oil whip), especially
whose resultantmust be equal to the at high speeds, but also by steam forces in
bearingforce.As can be seen from Fig.5, the turbine
the force vector of a shell segment can be
considerablylargerthan the vector of the
bearingforce.
SinGethe maximum permissibleforce
vector is limited by the white metaltempe-
raturethe externalcarryingforce is smaller
für the multipleoil-wedge bearingthan für
the plain sleeve bearing.
The amplitudeof the shafl vibrationis a
minimum für the plain sleeve bearingand
a maximumfür the four-wedgeand the
tilting-pad bearingwith otherwiseun-
changed conditions,i.e.also constantun-
balanceforce.Thereforethe damping pro-
pertiesfür includedvibrationdecrease
from the plain sleeve bearing,the multiple
oil-wedge bearingto the tilting-pad
bearing.

F,

F.

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The more flexible a rotor (high fI) the lower
is the limit of stability and the limits of
stability of the various types of bearing
come closer together so that the advan-
tage of the four-wedge bearing is lost.
A drum-type rotor tor areaction turbine
hag very little flexibility, i.e. it hag a low
fI-value. It is always in the range in which
the four-wedge bearing hag a consider-
ably higher stability limit than the double-
wedge bearing.
Due to the low fI-values of drum-type
rotors the four-wedge bearing provides an
adequately high stability limit even at very
high speeds (> 15,000 Rpm).
The situation is somewhat different in the
case of the chamber type of steam turbine
(e.g. impulse machines) and centrifugal
compressor rotors.
8
The rotors comprise a relative thin shaft
carrying separate disks and are very flexi-
ble, i.e. have a high lJ-value. Therefore,
according to Fig. 6.2 the stability limit for
four-wedge bearings will be low.
For these rotors, therefore, the four-wedge
bearing can no Ionger be used, especially
for high speeds. Another type of bearing
must be employed, namely the radial
tilting-pad bearing. This is also a multiple
oil-wedge bearing except that the bearing
shell segments are arranged to tilt in the
body of the bearing. This allows the oil
wedge for each bearing shell segment to
form independently of the other parts. This
type of bearing hag practically no limit of
stability. However, not only the absolute
stability limits is of interest, but also the
size of the stability reserve for an operating
point within the stable range. The system
damping indicates how quickly the natural
vibrations of the shaft attenuate following a
disturbance of the static operating point,
i.e. how great the stabilizing effect of the
lubricating film is compared with the ex-
ternal destabilizing influence.
Fig. 6.3 shows the damping for various
types of bearings for IJ = constant plotted
against speed.
Apart tram the form of the oil film (ratio of journal and the bearing shell at operating Gil under pressure is supplied to the
the bearing shell segment radius to speed due to slight misalignment of the bearing shell through radial passages ted
the shaft radius) and the number of oil shaft or bearing housing. tram a circumterential groove round the
wedges, the properties of the bearing body ot the bearing. The radial passages
For the relatively light rotors of industrial
depend on the clearance and the ratio of conduct the oil into pockets between each
turbines a width to diameter ration of 0.5
bearing width to diameter. pair ot oil wedges. In these pockets the hot
or 0.8 has proved satisfactory practice.
oil emerging tram a wedge mixes with the
The bearing clearance must be chosen as
The design of a Siemens double-wedge cool flow ot new oil and then enters the
a compromise between the damping of
journal bearing is shown in Fig. 7 and 8. next wedge at the mixed temperature.
unbalance vibration, the stability limit, the
guiding accuracy tor the shaft and the The bearing shell is an axially-split, thick- In order to obtain a low inlet temperature
friction losses. For the journal bearings of walled steel ring. It is supported directly in tor the subsequent wedge it is necessary
industrial turbines a minimum clearance the bearing housing by a fitted seal (Fig.7). to provide adequate side leakage tram the
of 1.2%0 to 1.5%0 ofthe journal diameter Alignment of the bearing is affected by oil packet. This side leakage provides a
hag Game to be regarded as a good com- adjusting the bearing housing by means shield to prevent the hot oilleaving one
promise. The maximum clearance is ob- of adjusting devices. wedge tram entering another.
tained tram the tolerances of the bearing
The bore of the bearing shell is lined with The amount ot side leakage is determined
shell and the shaft journal.
white metal. This white metallining is 2 mm by triangular sials machined in the end
The larger the width to diameter ratio of a thick and does not have dovetail slots to taGes ot the oil pockets (Fig. 8). These
journal bearing the greater is the carrying key it to the shell. slots also remove any dirt which would
capacity. There is an increase in both the olherwise collect in the corners ot the oil
Thus, due to the thin white metallining the
supporting surface area and the average pockets.
distortion of the running surface of the
load per unit area associated with the
bearing shell under the very high, localized
chosen maximum temperature. At the
pressures of the hydrodynamic oil film is
same time, however, the stability limit
determined largely by the high modulus of
increases and there is a greater danger of
elasticity of the steel shell and not by the
metal-to-metal contact between the shaft
low modulus of the white metal. A satisfac-
tory bond between the steel and white
metal is achieved by means of centrifugal
casting.

9
 The same bearing shell is used for the
four-wedge bearing as for the double-
wedge bearing; the former simply hag four
bearing shell segment instead of two
(Fig. 9). The four bearing shell segments
are separated by four pockets and oil from
the circumferential groove is fed info each
pocket through a radial passage.

The bearing shell joint must always run

through one pair of oil pockets so that
there is no butt joint in the running surface.

In Fig. 7 a small radial hole can be seen in

the bottom half of the bearing shell.
High-pressure oil is fed through this hole
and forced between the journal and the
bearing shell before the turbine is started
up.
It produces a hydrostatic oil film so that
there is no metal-to-metal contact bet-
ween the journal and the shell. This en-
sures that there is no wear during start up
and the breakaway torque of the shafl for
the turning gear is greatly reduced.

To provide additional safety, jacking oil is

also supplied during turning gear opera-
tion to prevent damage to the bearing
shell. During turbine run-up, the jacking
device remains in operation until a

Gil supply packet Hole for fitting a

thermocouple

Fig.7
Construction of the double-wedge bearing

10
sufficiently thick hydrodynamic oi! film hag
built up, i.e.at a shaft speed of approx.
500 Rpm. The jacking device can be used
für two-wedge, four-wedge and tilting-pad
bearings. It is employed depending on the
specific bearing load (breakaway torque)
of the shaft.
SinGe the oil pressure required can be
over 100 bar, a gear-type pump is provided
für this jacking system. So thai the high-
pressure oil cannot force its way between
the white metallining and the steel shell
when it enters the bearing, it is fed through
an integrally-cast column of white metal.
Every bearing shell has provision for the independent of the inlet pressure. It is
fitting of a thermocouple for monitoring the determined almost entirely by the speed of
white metal temperature. This measuring rotation.
point is obviously very important because
The double-wedge and four-wedge bea-
the temperature of the white metal is the
rings which have been described have
prime factor for safety of the bearing.
al ready given many years of satisfactory
The temperature measuring point itself is service in large numbers of industrial
at the end of the hole immediately below turbines. In the process they have fully
the thin white metallayer. demonstrated their excellent damping
properties für unbalance vibration and
The temperature of the oil discharging
their adequate stability, limit für the drum-
from the bearing is unsuitable for monitor-
type rotors of reaction turbines running at
ing the white metal temperature. In the
the highest speeds.
initial stages of metal-to-metal contact in
the bearing the heat produced is so small
in relation to the total heat of friction in the
bearing thai is is unlikely for a temperature
rise to be significantly noticeable.
Nevertheless, the oil outlet temperature is
still necessary for supervising the oil tem-
perature rise in the bearing. In order to
keep the friction lasses to a minimum the
temperature rise of the oil should be
approx.15 K. This value can be adjusted
by means of the inlet flow of cool oil, i.e.
by adjusting the inlet oil pressure to the
bearing. This affects primarily the flow of
oil through the triangular grooves. The
quantity of oil carried round circum-
ferentially by the shaft journal is practically