Analysis of Cooling Performance of a Marine Air-cooled Sliding Intermediate Bearing Based on Fluid-Structure Interaction

The intermediate bearing is an important component in marine propulsive system. The transmission efficiency, reliability and service life of propulsion shafting are significantly affected by the lubrication performance of intermediate bearing. Based on the theory of CFD, the FSI heat transfer numerical model of a marine air-cooled sliding intermediate bearing was established. The hydrodynamic lubrication numerical model of intermediate bearing was coupled with the heat transfer model by UDF. The temperature fields of intermediate bearing and oil in tank were obtained under the maximum speed condition. The simulation results agree well with the experiment and the accuracy of numerical model is also accepted at the same time. As the results shown, the highest temperature of bearing bush is 77.88°C and the average temperature of oil in tank is 70.14°C. The results indicate that the cooling performance of intermediate bearing meets the design requirements. (paper)