Testing of gas turbine engine bearing oil supply through an oil-catch ring

The paper describes a defect of a high-pressure rotor radial-thrust bearing resulting in its failure. Bearing failurecould be caused by insufficient liquid coolant supply. The paper presents a method of oil supply to the gas turbine engine bearing assembly through an oil-catch ring. It also introduces and describes the oil-catch ring design. The ring features the capability of providing the liquid coolant supply in spite of the centrifugal effect. The authors enumerate the disadvantages of this method of lubricant supply as well as the advantages of the proposed design application. The paper describes the virtual structure calculation and presents the input data and the obtained results. The configuration of the ring test rig is presented. The parameters to be controlled during the test are detailed.  The test results and their comparison with the hydraulic design results are presented. Conclusion is made about the application of the oil-catch ring that proves the efficiency of using this method of supplying lubricant.