Abstract
Tilling pad journal bearings have been widely used to support the rotors of the high rotating machinery such as steam and gas turbines owing to their inherent dynamic stability characteristics. However, serious bearing problems such as fatigue damage in the upper unloaded pad, the break of locking pins and the wear of pinholes etc. by pad fluttering are frequently taken place in the actual steam turbines. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanism of pad fluttering and to suggest the useful design guideline(application of preload, m) for the purpose of preventing bearing problems by pad fluttering in a tilting pad journal bearing. It is estimated that upper pad is easy to flutter because the film shape of the upper pad is diverged by moment acting on pivot point. This paper suggests that effective preload range(m $\geq$ 0.5) in order to be statically loaded pad under all operating conditions. Also, design modified bearing is suggested for the adjustment in actual steam turbines. And bearing and rotor dynamic analysis are performed to identify bearing characteristics and to verify the reliability of rotor-bearing system.