US 12,221,195 B2
Fluid machine and underwater vehicle
Shigeki Senoo, Tokyo (JP); Shinichi Isobe, Tokyo (JP); Wataru Yamada, Tokyo (JP); Takehiko Nishida, Tokyo (JP); Takuyoshi Yamada, Tokyo (JP); Kazuki Hosono, Tokyo (JP); Yoshitomo Noda, Tokyo (JP); Takuzo Shigihara, Tokyo (JP); Hiroki Takeda, Tokyo (JP); and Yuichi Sekine, Tokyo (JP)
Assigned to MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD., Tokyo (JP)
Filed by MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD., Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Mar. 21, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/699,309.
Claims priority of application No. 2021-061816 (JP), filed on Mar. 31, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0315181 A1, Oct. 6, 2022
Int. Cl. B63G 8/08 (2006.01); B63H 1/16 (2006.01); B63H 21/17 (2006.01)
CPC B63G 8/08 (2013.01) [B63H 1/16 (2013.01); B63H 21/17 (2013.01)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A fluid machine comprising:
a shaft portion extending in an axis direction;
a shroud provided to surround the shaft portion, and forming a flow path between the shroud and the shaft portion, the flow path having one side in the axis direction serving as an upstream side and another side in the axis direction serving as a downstream side;
a propeller provided rotatably around the axis between the shaft portion and the shroud;
a motor provided in the shroud and configured to rotationally drive the propeller; and
a bearing apparatus provided only to the shaft portion, out of the shroud and the shaft portion, and rotationally supporting the propeller, wherein:
the propeller includes an inner circumference ring provided on an outer circumference side of the shaft portion with a clearance interposed therebetween;
the bearing apparatus includes
a pair of thrust bearings provided to the shaft portion so as to sandwich the inner circumference ring from both sides in the axis direction, and
a radial bearing provided to the shaft portion so as to face an inside surface of the inner circumference ring;
the thrust bearings and the radial bearing are slide bearings supporting the inner circumference ring via a fluid film formed of a fluid entering the clearance;
at least one of the thrust bearings and the radial bearing includes a plurality of bearing pads arranged in a circumferential direction, and
the bearing pads each include
an elastic layer fixed to the shaft portion and made of an elastic material that is elastically deformable, and
a sliding layer stacked on the elastic layer so as to face the inner circumference ring with the clearance interposed therebetween, and made of a bearing material.