The Contact Properties of Water Lubricated Rubber Stern Bearings after the Differentiation of Rubber Bush Hardness

With consideration to the manufacturing process, the rubber hardness of traditional rubber stern bearing is unified. However, due to the cantilever effect of propellers, the pressure distribution on traditional rubber stern bearings is uneven. In most cases, the tail pressure is higher than that in other locations. This affects the overall performance of stern bearings. Aiming at the problem, this paper reforms the rubber hardness of traditional rubber stern bearings and divides the bearing bush into different categories. Through computation and analysis, a reasonable length of each region and rubber hardness is established. With the help from finite element softwares, the finite element model of shaft -stern bearing is constructed. The Mooney-Rivlin model is then used to simulate rubber materials, and with the contact element analyzed, the contact relation is built between the shaft and stern bearing. The pressure distribution on the traditional rubber stern bearing and the improved one is calculated and compared, which reveals that the maximum contact stress is reduced by 25.6%, and the contact region is increased by 5.8°. Overall, the proposed method significantly improves the contact properties of stern bearings.