Experimental Verification of Subcritical Whirl Bifurcation of a Rotor Supported on a Fluid Film Bearing

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Deepak ◽  
S. T. Noah

The paper presents the results of the experiments that were conducted on a short fluid film bearing with a simple single disk rotor. The behavior of the journal was analyzed as a function of the rotor system parameters such as the load, speed, and imbalance mass. It was verified that the journal bearing can lose stability through either a subcritical or a supercritical bifurcation. In the supercritical bifurcation, the expected gradual increase in the amplitude of the limit cycle was observed, while in the subcritical bifurcation there was a sudden jump to a large limit cycle. In the case of a subcritical bifurcation, it was also observed that the journal bearing became unstable below the rotor threshold speed of instability, following a small perturbation applied to the rotor. Demarcations were made for the stable regions of operation (regions where the rotor is stable below the threshold speed of instability) for the journal bearing based on the obtained experimental results. Experiments were also performed to analyze the effects of imbalance of the rotor on the threshold speed of instability. It was observed that the flexible unbalanced rotor had a lower threshold speed of instability. The limitations of the linear theory of fluid film bearings in predicting these phenomena are discussed.

Lubricants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Eckhard Schüler ◽  
Olaf Berner

In high speed, high load fluid-film bearings, the laminar-turbulent flow transition can lead to a considerable reduction of the maximum bearing temperatures, due to a homogenization of the fluid-film temperature in radial direction. Since this phenomenon only occurs significantly in large bearings or at very high sliding speeds, means to achieve the effect at lower speeds have been investigated in the past. This paper shows an experimental investigation of this effect and how it can be used for smaller bearings by optimized eddy grooves, machined into the bearing surface. The investigations were carried out on a Miba journal bearing test rig with Ø120 mm shaft diameter at speeds between 50 m/s–110 m/s and at specific bearing loads up to 4.0 MPa. To investigate the potential of this technology, additional temperature probes were installed at the crucial position directly in the sliding surface of an up-to-date tilting pad journal bearing. The results show that the achieved surface temperature reduction with the optimized eddy grooves is significant and represents a considerable enhancement of bearing load capacity. This increase in performance opens new options for the design of bearings and related turbomachinery applications.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (18-19) ◽  
pp. 2831-2852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishnkant Sahu ◽  
Satish C Sharma

In recent times, controlling the performance of fluid film bearings smartly has become an important area for the fluid film bearing designers. This study deals with the numerical simulation of a magneto-rheological fluid–lubricated two-lobe hybrid slot-entry journal bearing. To make the operating condition more exact and realistic, the influence of geometric imperfection of the journal arising from manufacturing inaccuracies and thermal effect has been considered. Dave magneto-rheological fluid model, a constitutive relation of the Bingham model, and finite element method have been used in this article to simulate the behavior of the magneto-rheological fluid in a slot-entry bearing. The results indicate that the heat generated because of viscous friction rises the temperature of the magneto-rheological fluid, which changes the bearing performance significantly. Considering barrel-shaped journal and magneto-rheological fluid (applied current, Ic = 4 A), the performance of two-lobe slot-entry bearing is superior in terms of the value of [Formula: see text] approximately by a magnitude of 2%, 41%, 181%, 168%, 75%, and 41%, respectively, as compared to that of the base bearing (smooth [Formula: see text], two-lobe bearing, operating with a Newtonian fluid, Ic = 0 A).


2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Branagan ◽  
Neal Morgan ◽  
Christopher Goyne ◽  
Roger Fittro ◽  
Robert Rockwell ◽  
...  

Abstract To compensate for an extremely heavy journal, jacking pockets can be added to the surface of pads in fluid film bearings. Jacking pockets can range in size and shape and will have an influence on the hydrodynamic performance of the bearing. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to better understand the influence of the geometry of a rectangular/stadium-shaped, jacking pocket on the performance of bearings. First, the influence of the pocket depth on the pressure profile of the bearing was investigated. A varying profile occurred with jacking pocket depths less than 6.6 × Cb. After this threshold, the pocket depth ceased to have an influence on the pressure profile. A second study examined the circumferential length of the pocket, and the pressure profile was found to approach the smooth case as the pocket circumferential length decreased. Response surface models were created to map the influence of the jacking pocket geometry on the journal location in the bearing, power loss, and stiffness characteristics of the bearing. This is the first study on influence of the geometry of a jacking pocket on the operation and linear stiffnesses of the bearing in fluid film journal bearings.


Author(s):  
J. Harrison Gyurko ◽  
Stephen A. Hambric ◽  
Karl M. Reichard

Current modeling of the static and dynamic characteristics of fluid film bearings typically employs a single impedance matrix to represent the force transfer between a bearing and journal centerlines. A numerical method has been proposed that distributes the bearing impedances around the circumference of the fluid film to allow for more accurate modeling of higher order circumferential modes. In order for this method to be used with confidence, its results must first be validated. For this purpose, an experimental test method and apparatus capable of measuring these distributed bearing impedances has been developed. This paper will present the preliminary bearing displacement and pressure measurements collected from the journal bearing test apparatus and will compare these experimental results to those calculated numerically. Discrepancies between the data sets will be discussed and future steps will be outlined.


1989 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-353
Author(s):  
Wen Zhang

The paper is devoted to the estimation of the lower bound of the stability threshold speed (STS) of a flexible rotor system supported in fluid-film bearings. It is proved theoretically that the STS of any multi-degree-of-freedom flexible rotor system is always higher than the STS of the corresponding equivalent single disk rotor. The conclusion offers us a simple approach to estimate the STS of any actual rotor system and provides a theoretical foundation for the approach.


1974 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 147-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Taylor

For lightly loaded fluid film bearings in which gaseous cavitation occurs, application of the continuity boundary condition at the liquid-gas interface is not satisfactory. Two alternative boundary conditions have been postulated. The purpose of this paper is to examine the separation boundary condition; in particular, the effect of both bounding surfaces being in motion is studied. This situation might be used as a basis for experimental work designed to select the most appropriate boundary condition for lightly loaded bearings. In Part 2, the boundary condition is used to analyse the cylinder-plane and journal bearing configurations. The theoretical predictions for the operating parameters are examined to see if their magnitudes and/or trends could be used for comparing the available cavitation boundary conditions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. P. Lijesh ◽  
Harish Hirani

Fluid film bearings (FFBs) provide economic wear-free performance when operating in hydrodynamic lubrication regime. In all other operating conditions, except hydrostatic regime, these bearings are subjected to wear. To get wear-free performance even in those conditions, a hybrid (hydrodynamic + rotation magnetized direction (RMD) configured magnetic) bearing has been proposed. The hybrid bearing consists of square magnets to repel the shaft away from the bearing bore. Load-carrying capacities of four configurations of hybrid bearings were determined. The results are presented in this paper. The best configuration of hybrid bearing was developed. A test setup was developed to perform the experiments on the fluid film and hybrid bearings. The wear results of both the bearings under same operating conditions are presented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adesh Kumar Tomar ◽  
Satish C. Sharma

Abstract The performances of the tribo-pairs are greatly influenced by introducing the grooved surfaces. Developments of the newer type of lubricants have made a great impact on the performance of fluid film bearings. This article investigates the non-Newtonian behavior of electrorheological lubricant on the performance of grooved hybrid spherical journal bearing. The effect of different arrangements of grooves, i.e., partially grooved or fully grooved on the bearing surface, has been studied. The finite element method is used to numerically simulate the results. Furthermore, a parametric study is performed for optimizing the groove attributes. The present work demonstrates that the different grooved arrangements have a substantial influence on the bearing performance. It is revealed that the provision of grooves on the bearing surface decreases frictional losses and enhances the stiffness coefficients of the bearing. Furthermore, numerically simulated results indicate that the electrorheological lubricant enhances the value of minimum fluid film thickness and the stiffness coefficients (S¯xxandS¯yy) of spherical hybrid journal bearing. Improved bearing performance can be achieved by using the optimized grooved attributes together with the electrorheological lubricant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 38-44
Author(s):  
Alexander Babin ◽  
Roman Polyakov

Author(s):  
Saeid Dousti ◽  
Jianming Cao ◽  
Amir Younan ◽  
Paul Allaire ◽  
Tim Dimond

Fluid film bearings are commonly analyzed with the conventional Reynolds equation, without any temporal inertia effects, developed for oil or other high viscosity lubricants. In applications with rapidly time varying external loads, e.g. ships on wavy oceans, temporal inertia effect should be taken into account. As rotating speeds increase in industrial machines and the reduced Reynolds number increases above the turbulent threshold, a form of linearized turbulence model is often used to increase the effective viscosity to take the turbulence into account. Other than the turbulence effect, with high reduced Reynolds number, convective inertia effect gains importance. Water or other low viscosity fluid film bearings used in subsea machines and compressors are potential applications with a highly reduced Reynolds number.” This paper extends the theory originally developed by Tichy [1] for impulsive loads to high reduced Reynolds number lubrication in different bearing configurations. Both fluid shear and pressure gradient terms are included in the velocity profiles across the lubricant film. The incompressible continuity equation and Navier Stokes equations, including the temporal inertia term, are simplified using an averaged velocity approach to obtain an extended form of Reynolds equation which applies to both laminar and turbulent flow. All terms in the Navier Stokes equation, including both the convective and temporal inertia terms are included in the analysis. The inclusion of the temporal inertia term creates a fluid acceleration term in the extended Reynolds equation. A primary advantage of this formulation is that fluid film bearings lubricated with low viscosity lubricants which are subject to high force slew rates can be analyzed with this extended Reynolds equation. A short bearing form of the extended Reynolds equation is developed with appropriate boundary conditions. A full kinematic analysis of the short journal bearing is developed including time derivatives up to and including shaft accelerations. Linearized stiffness, damping and mass coefficients are developed for a plain short journal bearing. A time transient solution is developed for the pressure and bearing loads in plain journal bearings supporting a symmetric rigid rotor when the rotor is subjected to rapidly applied large forces. The change in the rotor displacements when subjected to unbalance forces is explored. Several comparisons between conventional Reynolds equation solutions and the extended Reynolds number form with temporal inertia effects will be presented and discussed.


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