Project description
Oil transfer bearings put under test
The growing demand for smaller aircraft engines that operate at great speeds places strict requirements on the performance of the transmission system. Effective lubrication, liquid cooling and hydraulic actuation are vital to increase performance and life span. The current focus is now on new oil transfer bearings. These will supply lubricant oil to planetary gear bearings when the carrier rotates and will control movable objects on the rotating frame such as the pitch control mechanism for the blades. With EU funding of the PROTEUSS project, researchers from the University of Nottingham will develop an experimental rig and computational models to study the operation of oil transfer bearings. Test results will allow their safe incorporation in the engine transmission system.
Objective
With the drive for engine cores to become smaller in size whilst operating at ever greater speeds and loads, the demands placed on the transmission systems are becoming ever greater.
Correspondingly, effective lubrication, liquid cooling and hydraulic actuation are increasingly essential to the performance and life span of engine transmission systems.
The above general trends, coupled with a recent resurgence of interest in open rotor engines, propel a need for new Oil Transfer Bearings (OTBs) to be developed. OTBs are required for two main reasons:
(a) to provide both lubrication to bearings of planetary gears when the carrier of an epicyclic gearbox rotates and
(b) to actuate movable objects on the rotating frame such as a blade pitch mechanism.
The proposed experimental rig and supporting computational model will investigate both of these conditions simultaneously.
UNOTT is well placed to carry out this work due to its experience in delivering high quality research relevant to bearings, seals, shafts and other parts of the gas turbine transmissions system that have become a feature in all recent engine development programmes at Rolls-Royce. This is an area of focus for the Gas Turbines and Transmissions Research Centre, which included a significant investment in research facilities that would allow research in this area of long-term strength at UNOTT to deliver benefits to the wider engines community and contribute to the global challenges we face to reduce noise and emissions.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
NG7 2RD Nottingham
United Kingdom