Abstract: In order to investigate the contact status between after stern tube bearing and propeller shaft of large merchant ships in static condition, the FE model of shaft alignment for propulsion shaft was built by beam element, where the stern tube bearing was divided into several sections. As non-linear support boundary condition of beam element, both Hertz and Winkler elastic contact model were used to simulate contact status between each shaft bearing and shaft. The FE model was solved by iterative method. In accordance with the calculation results, it was revealed that two methods had similar outcomes in the contact area of after stern tube bearing, but the contact stiffness of Winkler contact model, with smaller contact area and more concentrative force, was higher than Hertz contact model. And the contact area of Hertz contact model was larger, and could not fulfil the prerequisite of Hertz contact model, so it might result in limitation in after stern tube bearing contact calculation.

Key words: after stern tube bearing, elastic contact, non-linear, shaft alignment