Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic Evaluation
of Main Bearing Performance
For more than a decade, MAN B&W
Diesel has developed advanced soft-
ware to perform in-house evaluation of
bearing performance.
Lately, this software has been used to
optimise the performance of main bearings
for especially the S-MC/MC-C engines.
Furthermore, the software is used to
evaluate production related deviations
and to give qualified proposals for repair
modifications.
The flexibility of the software and the
dedication to focus on important issues
in relation to the two-stroke crosshead
engines have made this code superior
to any other codes available for this
kind of analysis.
In the following we will focus on an ap-
plication area closely related to the per-
formance of main bearings.
“Flex-edge” main bearing design
The “flex-edge” main bearing design,
Fig. 1 has recently been introduced as
standard on L/S-MC engines having the
so-called thick shell bearing design. For
L/S-MC-C engines with thin shell de-
sign, the “deformed-edge” design has
been introduced. Both the “flex-edge”
design and the “deformed-edge” de-
sign have been developed and evalu-
ated by means of Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic
bearing analysis as a supplement to
service tests.
Fig. 2 shows the typical damage to a
main bearing for an S-MC engine.
Fig. 1: “Flex-edge” main bearing design
The damage can be seen in the Lower
Journal Inclinations [mRad]
Port side Aft position (LPA position). In 1.5
this position, the influence of the main Rot X TDCcyl. 5
1
journal inclinations is significant. Sev- TDC cyl. 6
0.5
eral main bearings have been studied
0
in detail and, as an example, the case 0 60 120 180 240 300 360
-0.5
of main bearing No. 6 on an 8-cylinder Rot Y
S80MC engine will be dealt with. -1
-1.5
270 315
Fig. 3 shows inclinations of journal Crank angle [Deg´s]
No. 6, calculated by means of our
crankshaft vibration analysis code (QVIB).
Fig. 3: Main journal inclination for main
0 deg. crank angle corresponds to top bearing No. 6 on 8S80MC, an external load
dead centre of cylinder 1, whereas 270 to the main bearing
deg. and 315 deg. correspond to top
dead centre of cylinder Nos. 5 and 6, The thick shell “flex-edge” design has
respectively. Fig. 4 shows the tradi- two important features:
tional load orbit for main bearing No. 6.
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 define the complete • Bearing shell deformation by tangen-
external load on main bearing No. 6. tial pressure in the shell
• Flexible edge.
Standard design
In Fig. 6, the deformation by the tan-
gential pressure from the bearing hous-
ing is shown for an S80MC main
bearing assembly. A small deformation
(12 microns) from the centre part of the
bearing shell to the edge is the result of
Fig. 2: Typical damage to main bearing for Y X
S-MC engine 240
210
180
The result of the Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic 150
bearing analysis is given as oil film pressure 90 0
120 30 60
presentation and as oil film thickness
distribution. Fig. 5 shows the result at 0 Deg: TDC cyl.1
240 deg. crank angle for the old stan- 270 Deg: TDC cyl.5
dard “fully supported edge” design. 315 Deg: TDC cyl.6
A steep pressure build-up close to the
aft edge of the lower bearing shell is 270
indicated. In order to calculate such
steep pressure gradients, an extremely
fine mesh is needed in these areas of
the fluid model. The code developed 330
by MAN B&W Diesel supports local re- 300
finement of the fluid mesh, and the cal-
culations can thereby be executed in a
reasonable time on state-of-the-art
computers. Fig. 4: Traditional load orbit, main
bearing No. 6, 8S80MC
1

Standard design, 240 deg crank angle
Cam
Film distribution
Upper shell
Exhaust
Pressure distribution
Fore Cam
Lower shell
Aft
Fig. 5: Result of Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic
bearing analysis, old standard ‘fully
supported edge’ design
a free-edge of approximately the same
width as the shell thickness.
The above deformation is modelled into
the fluid model of the “clearance-space”
between the journal and the bearing shell.
The slightly larger clearances toward the
edges are seen in Fig. 7.
The structure, including the flexible
edge, is modelled by a finite element
model, as shown in Fig. 8.
Structural analysis
Flex amount: 12 µm
Fig. 6: Flex edge design, deformation by
bearing housing tangential pressure
Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic bearing analyses
comparing the standard “fully supported
edge” design and the “flex-edge” design
are summarised in Figs. 9 and 10 for main
bearing No. 6 on an 8S80MC. Fig. 9
summarises the minimum oil film thick-
ness as a function of the crank angle
(0 deg.: TDC of cylinder No. 1).
2
[MPa] Maximum film pressure
60
pmax, std. TDC TDC
50 pmax, flx cyl. 5 cyl. 6
pmax, flx + def
40 pmax, def
30
20
10
0
0 60 120 180 240 300 360
Models, fluid 270 315
Crank angle [deg's]
Fig. 7: Flex edge design, fluid model or Fig. 10: Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic bearing analysis,
‘clearance space’ comparison of maximum oil film thickness
design. At 247 deg., the oil film is still
minimum, however the minimum thick-
ness is increased significantly to 7.5
micron (instant plot is shown in Fig. 12).
In Fig. 9 two other curves are shown.
These are theoretical curves made for
the purpose of investigating which of
the two effects, edge flexibility or edge
deformation, has the most predominant
Model, structure
influence on the improvement obtained
with the “flex-edge” design. The red
Fig. 8: Flex edge design, structure model
curve shows the influence of edge-flexi-
bility alone, whereas the purple curve
shows the influence of the edge- defor-
[mm] Minimum film thickness
TDC mation alone. It is seen that approx.
0.04
0.035
Hmin, std. cyl. 5 TDC one-third of the improvement comes
Hmin, flx cyl. 6
0.03 Hmin, flx + def from edge-flexibility and two-thirds come
0.025 Hmin, def from edge-deformation. This result is im-
0.02 portant in relation to the improvements
0.015
0.01
which can be foreseen on the thin shell
0.005 main bearing design, which will be dealt
0 with later.
0 60 120 180 240 300 360
Crank angle [deg's]
Fig. 10 summarises the oil film pressure
as a function of the crank angle. The
Fig. 9: Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic bearing
analysis, comparison of minimum oil film green curve shows the result for the
thickness standard “fully supported edge” bear-
ing design. At 240 deg., the oil film
pressure reaches a maximum value
The green curve shows the minimum (above 50 MPa) at the aft edge, port
oil film thickness for the standard “fully side (manoeuvring side) lower shell
supported edge” bearing design. At 247 instant plot is seen in Fig. 5).
deg., the oil film is 1.8 micron on the aft
edge in the port side (manoeuvring side) The light-blue curve of Fig. 10 shows
lower shell (instant plot is shown in Fig. 11) the oil film pressure for the “flex-edge”
The light-blue curve of Fig. 9 shows min- design. The maximum pressure, now
imum oil film thickness for the “flex-edge”
 reached at 311 deg., is significantly lower
A B (below 40 MPa). At the instant plot, Fig. 13,
Cam it can be seen that the maximum pres-
sure is in the centre position of the
Film distribution
bearing shell, and not at the edges and
not related to large journal inclinations.
Upper shell The maximum film pressure is directly
Exhaust related to the firing of cylinders Nos. 5
Pressure distribution and 6. It should be noted that there is a
Fore
Aft
Cam
Lower shell comfortable oil film thickness also at the
crank angle of maximum oil pressure.
The “flex-edge” design is seen to have a
Fig. 11: Result of Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic bearing analysis, old standard
higher oil pressure at the centre portion
‘fully supported edge’ design, 247 deg. crank angle
of the bearing, but a much lower oil
Explanation to Fig. 11 pressure at the critical aft edge where
11A: Two different items are plotted in the figure on the “unfolded” bearing surface: damage is seen, Fig. 2, thus optimising
1) Oil film thickness (µm) 2) Oil film pressure (MPa) the bearing design.
The lowermost part of the plots is for the lower shell (port side), whereas the results for the upper shell
are plotted on the upper part (port side uppermost).
The fact that the above described
11B: This plot of Fig. 11A can be seen from various angles. Fig. 11B shows the same data from port side. “trade-off” between load on the aft edge
Seen from this angle, journal inclinations and high pressure positions are further enhanced. and load on the central portion is optimal
The same explanation applies, in principle, to Figs. 5, 12 and 13. has been proved by tests in bearings
which have experienced repeated dam-
age on the aft edge port side (as in Fig. 2).
Fig. 14 shows two examples of the
“flex-edge” design installed in main
A B
Cam bearing position No. 6 of an 8S60MC
and an 8S80MC, respectively.
Film distribution

The “flex-edge” bearings have now been

Upper shell in service with good results for several
Exhaust thousand hours in bearing positions
where damage occurred after only a few
Pressure distribution
Fore Cam hundred hours of operation with the old
Aft Lower shell
standard “fully supported edge” design.
Fig. 12: Result of Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic bearing analysis , flex-edge design,
247 deg. crank angle Thus, the “trade-off” on load distribution
has been successful on the highest
loaded main bearing and, therefore,
the “flex-edge” design has been intro-

Cam
Film distribution

Upper shell

Exhaust
Pressure distribution
Fore
Aft Cam Lower shell A B

Fig. 13: Result of Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic Fig. 14: Flex-edge design in main bearing No. 6 on 8S60MC (A) and 8S80MC (B)
bearing analysis, flex-edge design,
311 deg. crank angle

3
duced as standard for all thick shell
bearings on S/L-MC engines.

In order to avoid the load increase in

the centre portion of the bearing, local

0,012
85
shell-back edge-relief, as shown in
Fig. 15, can be applied. Hereby a flexi-
ble edge in the lower-port-aft (LPA) posi-
tion can be used without any sacrifice.

For the thin shell bearing design, the

“relieved-edge” or “deformed edge“
design has been introduced. According to
Fig. 9, two-thirds of the improvement of
the “flex-edge” design is due to the de-
formation by the tangential pressure in
the thick shell. This improvement will be
adopted by relieving the edges of the
thin shell design, Fig. 16, and it is of
special importance for the S80MC-C
and S90MC-C engine types using white
metal for the thin shell bearing design.
Fig. 15: Local shell-back edge relief Fig. 16: Deformed edge for thin shell
bearing design
Conclusion
The analysis of the “flex-edge” main
bearing design by Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic
Bearing Analysis has proved the strength
of this kind of software dedicated to
focus on important issues in relation to
two-stroke diesel engines.

MAN B&W will continue to develop de-

signs based on Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic
Bearing Analysis.

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MAN B&W Diesel A/S
MAN B&W Diesel A/S Reproduction permitted
Teglholmsgade 41 provided source is given.
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Telephone: +45 33 85 11 00 MAN B&W Diesel A/S
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Telefax: +45 33 85 10 30
manbw@manbw.dk September 2002
www.manbw.com P.396-02.09