Experimental Investigation on Marine Main Shaft Bearings With Reduced Length to Diameter Ratio

Water lubricated bearings are often installed on new and modernized ships. The main reasons are: unit simplicity, no danger of pollution and low price. One of the main problems connected with this the bearings of this kind is defining maximum hydrodynamic film capacity. Due to very thin hydrodynamic film and significant bearing bush deformation, the EHL model should be used for calculations. Experimental research conducted in the past was carried out on a single bearing test rig [1, 2, 3]. Unfortunately that test rig has some disadvantages. Its flexible support gives possibility of shaft misalignment for instance in case of asymmetric hydrodynamic pressure film in the bearing. The new test rig, presented in this paper gives wide research possibilities and working conditions are very similar to those on a real ship.