1
Unexpected
Interactions between
Components
Gear Couplings - forces applied to
connected machines
C Pattern
Moments on the
sleeve balance out
F
Z Pattern
Moments on the sleeve add-up.
F
Additional lateral forces F arise
L
Torque = T
The angle between the direction of
Direction of relative
offset and the direction of the bearing load
offset of far end coupling θ is θ where:
Resultant θ = Τan-1 MF / MT = 35o typically
bearing load (0.3T/ L approx)
Example: Gear coupling drive to
epicyclic sun gear
Motor Coupling
• A power station
main coolant pump
with a epicyclic Tim Jones
Principal Engineer
gearbox driven by a Aircontrol Technologies
Points of Ltd.
Articulation
gear coupling failed Haw thorne
Staines Gear
Road
Middlesex TW18 3AY
its sun gear teeth 4 th June 2001
Coupling
Spacer
from the lateral loads.
Dear Tim,
• Cured by replacing I have now examined all the gears and
Planet
the gear coupling with studied the various
Wheel papers relating to
your gear pump test programme. I also
a flexible spline shaft expext to have a copy of the book by
Braithw aite w ithin a couple of days.
Sun Wheel
Example:
Bearing • Roller bearing
300 kW
failures in the
failures from 3.3 kV Motor
motor caused by
rotor 735 RPM
rotor resonance
vibration at its critical
speed, lowered
by overhung shaft
mass and flexible
stator mounting
• Cured by
stiffening the
frame and
reducing the drive
length
2
Clearance Losses due
to Thermal Instabilities
- when warming up
Example: Ram air turbine
• Ram air turbine on civil aircraft for emergency hydraulic
power. In its stowed position has a temperature of -10oC.
• When lowered into the airsteam it speeds up to a few
thousand RPM in 5 seconds. The light weight shaft warms
up more rapidly than the rigid housing. Bearings lose
clearance and fail.
• Cured by increasing the clearance in the bearings and
mounting them in a thin-walled housing
Example: Wind generator gearbox
3rd Stage Gearwheel
• On cold starting the large 3rd stage gearwheel does not warm up as rapidly
as the shaft, and the bearing inside it fails due to loss of clearance
• Cured by increasing the bearing clearance and changing its axial position
3
General Design Errors
Example: Fan
• A reliable fan, turbine driven via a gearbox was
duplicated with another close to it.
• To match the pattern of the air ducts, it was
arranged to rotate in the opposite direction.
• The loads on plain journal bearings in the
gearbox were then in the direction of the oil
inlet grooves, and the bearings failed.
• Cured by fitting the journal bearings in a
different angular position.
Example:
Very large
thrust
bearing
•A large tilting pad thrust bearing was designed by computer, to give
maximum operating film thickness. The computer programme did not
recognise the need for large gaps between the pads to allow hot exit
oil to be replaced by new cold oil feed.
• Result: the bearing overheated, and required redesign
4
Installation and
Maintenance Errors
Example: Large
rotating top
buoy
• Large buoy to
load and unload
oil from tankers.
• Rotary top to
allow pipes to
follow tanker
movements
• Bearing housing was
too large to machine so
bearing was mounted in
resin.
• Supported on 4 jacks
during resin casting. It
sagged between them,
3945 mm diam.
giving 4 areas of
tightness and fatigue.
• Cured by using 16
jacks to provide
adequate support
Example: Helicopter Gearbox
• A helicopter gearbox failed in flight when its
roller bearings failed by fatigue. It had magnetic
plugs which collected fatigue debris, to give
advanced warning of failure. The gearbox was
to be removed for repair when the area of
debris collected was 50 sq mm i.e. 7mm x 7mm
• The overseas maintenance crew regarded 50
sq mm as a square with 50mm sides. It had
reached 25mm x 25mm when the accident
occurred.
Summary
• There is great scope for learning by experience
from plant failures and using this as a basis for
design audits
• The operating experience is spread among
competing companies, and therefore needs to
be collected anonymously, and correlated by an
independent professional body, who can then
publish design guidance.
• This could be a role for the IMechE.
1.0
1
Bore diameter inches
5 10 20 30 30 Example:
Band of
performance
for 4 stroke l
r
a 00
we /10
h
hr
s
Cylinder Liner
ra
et /inc
Wear
engines
am ns
Di te i 2 stroke .010
ra
large marine
01
Motor cycles
.0
engines
and portable
Cylinder liner wear data
5
00
equipment
Diametral wear rate mm / 1000 hrs
.0
0.1
25
collected from a wide
00
Motor cars
.0
1
00
.0
.001 range of companies
05
00
.0
25
Commercial
00
around the world
0
vehicles
.01 .0
Railway
locomotives
Large
.0001
The typical wear performance of the
stationary
engines cylinders of internal combustion
engines
.001
10 100 1000
Bore diameter mm
