Wind Turbine Journal Bearing Housing With Toroidal Flexure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional journal bearings in wind turbine drivetrains face issues with high edge loading and seizure due to lack of flexibility, requiring additional components like gliding pads and steel springs to compensate for misalignment and deflection, which increases complexity.
Innovation Solution
A bearing assembly with a shaft and housing that have corresponding deformation around a toroidal axis, featuring flexible hinges and a cavity design that allows the bearing housing to tilt and maintain parallel surfaces with the shaft, distributing operational loads and minimizing peak loads through coordinated flexibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional journal bearings use rigid housing structures, then manufacturing and assembly are simpler, but the bearings experience high edge loading and seizure due to inability to accommodate misalignment and deflection
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing housing incorporates flexible hinges that enable dynamic adaptation to shaft deflection and misalignment during operation. The housing can tilt and deform elastically to maintain optimal bearing contact with the rotating shaft, preventing edge loading and seizure while accommodating operational variations without requiring additional compensating components.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing structure transitions from a rigid state to a flexible state through the incorporation of hinges with specific geometric parameters. The hinge geometry (radius, thickness, material properties) is designed to provide controlled flexibility that allows the housing to deform by specific amounts under operational loads, enabling it to follow shaft deflection while maintaining structural integrity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If extra components like gliding pads and steel springs are added to increase bearing flexibility, then misalignment and deflection are compensated, but the bearing design complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible hinge integrates multiple functions into a single structural element: it provides the necessary flexibility to accommodate shaft deflection, acts as a mounting structure for the bearing, and serves as the housing support. This consolidation eliminates the need for separate gliding pads, springs, and adjustable mounting mechanisms, reducing component count while maintaining adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The bearing housing utilizes a flexible shell structure with hinge joints that allow controlled deformation. This flexible shell design replaces rigid mounting structures with thin-walled, hinge-connected panels that can bend and tilt to follow shaft deflection, providing the necessary adaptability through the shell's own geometry rather than through additional mechanical components.
3Ease of operation
If the bearing housing is made flexible with hinges, then misalignment and deflection are accommodated, but the housing structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing housing is divided into multiple panels or segments connected by flexible hinges, allowing each segment to move independently to accommodate local deflections. This segmentation enables the housing to adapt to complex deformation patterns while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure, as each individual hinge and panel remains geometrically straightforward.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The flexible design ensures full contact between the bearing and shaft, building hydrodynamic pressure and sharing loads to reduce peak loads, thereby simplifying the bearing assembly and improving operational efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
The bearing housing has at least one deformation such that the bearing housing and the shaft have a corresponding deformation around a toroidal axis
Implementation Method 2
flexible hinges and a cavity design that allows the bearing housing to tilt and maintain parallel surfaces with the shaft
Implementation Method 3
lubrication is generally provided between the various bearing(s) and the rotating components
Implementation Method 4
building hydrodynamic pressure and sharing loads to reduce peak loads
Data Source
AI summary
A bearing assembly for a drivetrain of a wind turbine includes at least one shaft having a circumferential outer surface. The bearing assembly also includes a bearing housing arranged circumferentially around the circumferential outer surface of the shaft. The bearing housing having at least deformation such that the bearing housing and the shaft have a corresponding deformation around a toroidal axis such that interfacing surfaces of the bearing housing and the shaft flex together and remain parallel during operation of the drivetrain, thereby distributing operational loads of the drivetrain. The bearing assembly further includes a bearing housed at least partially within the bearing housing and engaging the circumferential outer surface of the shaft.