Computational Fluid Dynamics—Machine Learning Prediction of Machinery Coupling Windage Heating and Power Loss

Couplings connect the spinning shafts of driving and driven machines in the industry. A coupling guard encloses the coupling to protect personnel from the high-speed rotating coupling. The American Petroleum Institute API publishes standards that restrict the overheating of the coupling guards due to windage caused by the spinning shaft. Based on the most recent version of API 671, the peak temperature for the coupling guard should not exceed 60 °C. This paper proposes a machine learning (ML) model and an empirical formula to predict the maximum guard temperature and power loss. The ML models use a database obtained from simulated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) cases for different coupling guards under various conditions. Also, the paper provides validation for the CFD models with experimental tests for different cases. The proposed ML model uses eight different input parameters to predict temperature and power loss. The model shows an accurate prediction for a varied number of CFD cases. The performance of the generated model has been verified with the experimental results. Also, an empirical formula has been created using the same database from CFD results. The results show that the ML model has better prediction accuracy than the empirical formula for predicting peak temperature and power loss for all cases.