Performance improvement of thrust pad bearing employing honeycomb-inspired bionic texture considering thermal effects

Bionic textures are the designs which are inspired from nature or adopted from biological organisms. These textures are conceived on the mating surfaces to enhance their performance behaviours. In this paper, an attempt has been made to improve the performance of thrust pad bearing employing bionic texture inspired from the honeycomb structure. In the numerical investigation, Reynolds equation incorporating mass conservation algorithm is solved considering thermal effects. The effect of bionic texture attributes such as their dimensions, their extent in circumferential and radial directions on the performance parameters, namely, minimum film thickness and coefficient of friction, has been reported. It has been found that the minimum film thickness enhanced up to 31% and the coefficient of friction reduced up to 30% by conceiving bionic texture on the pad surface in comparison to plain pad. Pin-on-disk experimental test validated that bionic textured disc has lower coefficient of friction than plain disc.