Influence of ice collision loads at the propeller on the contact conditions in the journal bearings of ship propulsion systems

Journal bearings in drive trains of ships in Arctic and Antarctic operations show wear and fatigue damage resulting from collision between the propeller and drift ice. The damage requires costly drivetrain maintenance in dry dock, which can be reduced by load-appropriate design and predictive maintenance measures However, this requires a reliable life time calculation of marine drive train bearings subjected to stochastic ice loads. In the following investigations, the influence of different load characteristics of a propeller-ice collision on the contact states in the drive train bearings of ships is investigated in order to be able to estimate the influence of different load characteristics in terms of the development of future life time models. For the investigations, a MBD and EHD model of the drive train of the research vessel SA Agulhas II was built. The results show that the load characteristics "load duration", "load height" and "load orientation" and the operating parameter "oil temperature" have a high influence on the contact states in the drive train bearings and must be taken into account for future life time calculations. © 2022 Expert Verlag. All rights reserved.