Journal bearings become more and more relevant for wind turbine main gearbox application. First turbines have been installed in the field in 2013. Meanwhile all gearbox suppliers are investigating potentials of journal bearings. These potentials are high! Compared to existing roller element bearings, plain bearings are simple machine parts featuring a reduced number of elements. This leads to reduced initial cost. There are no additional parts that must be accelerated within transient load cases. Force transition between the two linked parts is no longer done by Hertzian contact. Due to broad (bearing internal) contact zones the peak loads are much smaller. These technical benefits shall result in more robust bearings. In all relevant gearbox bearing locations except low speed section planetary gears, the journals will work in pure hydrodynamics. The two linked bodies for each bearing position will be separated by an oil film. The oil film leads to increased system damping and the overall gearbox noise emission level will decline. The design space for radial sliders is small compared to rollers.
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