1 | Program Name or Ancillary Text eere.energy.gov

Water Power Peer Review

The Development of Open, Water-Lubricated Polycrystalline Diamond Thrust Bearings for Use in Marine Hydrokinetic (MHK) Energy Machines

Craig Cooley

US Synthetic / Bearings ccooley@ussynthetic.comSept. 27, 2011

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Purpose, Objectives, & Integration

Purpose:

Evaluate the use of Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) Bearings for use in the moving components of MHK energy machines

Motivation:

Reduce operating costs and preserve the marine environment from oil based lubricant contamination

PCD bearings are known to operate effectively in abrasive and high load situations for thousands of hours in oil and gas drilling tools

Knowledge gap:

Do diamond bearings currently have or can they be designed to have the necessary life to work for 5 years in an MHK machine?

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Technical Approach

Approach:

Conduct three design, build and test iterations to arrive at final design for life testing, and provide bearings for field evaluation

Bearing design methodology:

Consultation from Professor Michael Khonsari, LSU

Experience and methods used to design bearings for oil and gas tools

Laboratory testing and evaluation:

Using US Synthetic’s bearing test facility

Simulating MHK application by using water as the lubricant and appropriate test parameters

Conduct friction, life, and destructive tests in the laboratory

Prepare prototype bearings for full-scale tests

Key issue:

Achieving design balance between low friction (bearing hydrodynamic performance) and ability to transfer heat out of the bearing (mixed mode bearing performance)

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Technical Approach

Provided there is time, this side and the following two slides may be used by the principal investigator to explain project results.

Below are examples of the bearing geometries tested.

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Technical Approach

Example of a single bearing set’s hydrodynamic performance:

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Technical Approach

Failure data for several bearing types:

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Plan, Schedule, & Budget

Schedule:• Initiation date: 09/01/10• Planned completion date: 02/29/12• Currently on schedule

grGreen = complete, yellow = in progress, gray = planned

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Plan, Schedule, & Budget

Budget: • Of our planned budget for the first 3 quarters we are only over $527.• Of the $146,984 that we have budged for the DOE share for this

entire project, we have budgeted $84,397 for the first 3 quarters of 2011. Of that $84,397 we have spent $84,924 for a difference of $527.

Budget History

FY2010 FY2011 FY2012

DOE Cost-share DOE Cost-share DOE Cost-share

$0.00 $0.00 $119,397.00 $36,003.00 $27,587.00 $9,000.00