Design and testing of a smart rubber stave for marine water-lubricated bearings

The water-lubricated bearing is mainly installed at the stern of the ship to support the rotation of the main shaft of the ship, which is an important component of the ship’s power plant. The rubber stave of the water-lubricated bearing acts as an elastic body, which can effectively suppress the rotational vibration of the rotating shaft and improve the shaft alignment effect. To monitor the operational status of the water-lubricated bearing at the stern of a ship, a design method of smart rubber stave for water-lubricated bearings is proposed in this article. According to the structure of the rubber stave, the packaging and protection form of the optical fiber, the forming process of the rubber stave, and the mechanical analysis were carried out to determine the distribution design principle of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in the rubber stave. Then, FBGs were packaged, protected, and implanted with an uneven distribution into the rubber stave to achieve force sensing in the bearing. With reference to the force state of the water-lubricated bearing during shipbuilding and ship operation, various types of condition monitoring tests were conducted on the smart rubber stave using an elastomer testing machine, which were to analyze the effects of load sizes, frequencies, and ambient temperatures. The tests showed that the FBGs in the rubber stave could monitor the static and dynamic loads of the bearing under the seawater environment or inland water environment below 30°C. This method can be used for the smart designing and online load condition monitoring of water-lubricated bearings.