Are the clearances on the left and right sides of the bearing shell equal?
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Are the clearances on the left and right sides of the bearing shell equal? It’s different; the gap between the left and right sides is 2 threads. Based on the rotation direction of the shaft, this is just my personal opinion – let’s discuss it: handshake
The measurement is the same in a stationary state
It’s the same in a stationary state, but different during actual operation.
The values are the same during installation, but they should be different during actual operation
When your rotor is centered in the bearing cup sockets, the measured clearance should be consistent, unless the bearing cups are not aligned； Also, it is normal for the difference in the data you measure to be within 2 silk. Because there are also measurement errors.
When the shaft is at rest, the centers of the bearing pockets are aligned on both sides. However, when in operation, the rotor has mass eccentricity, which generates centrifugal force as the rotor rotates; as a result, the axis of the rotor moves along a circular path rather than remaining fixed at one point. That’s why the left-right tilt clearance of the bearing shells varies during operation. The previous question wasn’t clear enough: is the lateral play of the bearing shells the same during operation?
It mainly depends on the type of bearing shell you have: there are 2-oil- wedge, 3-oil-wedge, 4-oil-wedge, elliptical shells, cylindrical shells, tilting shells, and many others. In the case of a 3-oil-wedge bearing shell, the clearances on both sides are different.
The type of wafer is related to the rotor rotation direction. For tilting pad bearings, the rotor moves primarily up and down within the bearings, with the clearances on both sides of the pad being roughly the same ； For elliptical bearings, the rotor generally tilts to one side, resulting in unequal clearances on both sides of the shaft bearing. If two eddy current sensors are installed on the bearing to measure shaft vibration, the magnitude of the offset can be calculated directly from the gap voltage.
For tilting pad bearings, it’s probably different. First, one needs to check whether the support for the bearing pad is located in the middle of it. Additionally, a wedge-shaped oil film is formed between the bearing pad and the shaft during operation, so it should be different. Also, it seems that this gap isn’t measured during actual measurements; generally, the gap between the support points is what’s measured.