Hermetically Sealed Squeeze Film Damper for Operation in Oil-Free Environments

Author(s):  
Bugra Ertas ◽  
Adolfo Delgado

The following work advances a new concept for a hermetically sealed squeeze film damper (HSFD), which does not require an open-flow lubrication system. The hermetically sealed concept utilizes a submersed plunger within a contained fluidic cavity filled with incompressible fluid and carefully controlled end plate clearances to generate high levels of viscous damping. Although the application space for a hermetic damper can be envisioned to be quite broad, the context here will target the use of this device as a rotordynamic bearing support damper in flexibly mounted gas bearing systems. The effort focused on identifying the stiffness and damping behavior of the damper while varying test parameters such as excitation frequency, vibration amplitude, and end plate clearance. To gain further insight to the damper behavior, key dynamic pressure measurements in the damper land were used for identifying the onset conditions for squeeze film cavitation. The HSFD performance is compared to existing gas bearing support dampers and a conventional open-flow squeeze film dampers (SFD) used in turbomachinery. The damper concept yields high viscous damping coefficients an order of magnitude larger than existing oil-free gas bearing supports dampers and shows comparable damping levels to current state of the art open-flow SFD. The force coefficients were shown to contribute frequency-dependent stiffness and damping coefficients while exhibiting amplitude independent behavior within operating regimes without cavitation. Finally, using experimentally based force density calculations, the data revealed threshold cavitation velocities, approximated for the three end seal clearance cases. To complement the experimental work, a Reynolds-based fluid flow model was developed and is compared to the HSFD damping and stiffness results.

Author(s):  
Bugra Ertas ◽  
Adolfo Delgado

The following work advances a new concept for a hermetically sealed squeeze film damper (HSFD), which does not require an open-flow lubrication system. The hermetically sealed concept utilizes a submersed plunger within a contained fluidic cavity filled with incompressible fluid and carefully controlled end plate clearances to generate high levels of viscous damping. Although the application space for a hermetic damper can be envisioned to be quite broad, the context here will target the use of this device as a rotordynamic bearing support damper in flexibly mounted gas bearing systems. The effort focused on identifying the stiffness and damping behavior of the damper while varying test parameters such as excitation frequency, vibration amplitude, and end plate clearance. To gain further insight to the damper behavior, key dynamic pressure measurements in the damper land were used for identifying the onset conditions for squeeze film cavitation. The HSFD performance is compared to existing gas bearing support dampers and a conventional open-flow squeeze film dampers (SFD) used in turbomachinery. The damper concept yields high viscous damping coefficients an order of magnitude larger than existing oil-free gas bearing supports dampers and shows comparable damping levels to current state of the art open-flow SFD. The force coefficients were shown to contribute frequency dependent stiffness and damping coefficients while exhibiting amplitude independent behavior within operating regimes without cavitation. Finally, using experimentally based force density calculations the data revealed threshold cavitation velocities, approximated for the three end seal clearance cases. To complement the experimental work, a Reynolds based fluid flow model was developed and is compared to the HSFD damping and stiffness results.


Author(s):  
H P Jagadish ◽  
L Ravikumar

Magnetorheological (MR) fluids are suspensions of fine micron-sized magnetizable particles in a suitable carrier liquid. The rheological properties of the fluid can be controlled by application of a suitable magnetic field and can be used in a variety of applications where variable damping and stiffness characteristics are required, based on the requirements of the rotor dynamic system. In this work, the stiffness and damping characteristics of MR fluid long squeeze film damper operating at low eccentricity ratios are calibrated in terms of Reynolds number of the squeeze film for different clearance and L/D ratios. A theoretical constant magnetic field viscosity model is developed, based on the literature, and is subsequently used to evaluate the theoretical stiffness and damping coefficients, at a particular excitation frequency. The results indicate that the stiffness and damping coefficients decrease with increasing Reynolds number of the squeeze film and is found to be abysmally low, indicating that the flow has ceased and the film has solidified. This is in accordance with the literature that predicts the formation of chain-like semi-solid structures, restricting the flow, and consequently increasing the viscosity, under the influence of the magnetic field. This change in viscosity, in turn, influences the stiffness and damping coefficients and the Reynolds number of the squeeze film. The stiffness and damping coefficients are found to increase with decreasing clearance, increasing L/D ratio, and eccentricity ratio. The results of the investigation assist the designer in obtaining the stiffness and damping characteristics of the squeeze film damper based on the Reynolds number of the squeeze film. Conversely, the stiffness and damping characteristics of the squeeze film damper are calibrated in terms of the Reynolds number of the squeeze film for different damper configurations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 619
Author(s):  
Kostandin Gjika ◽  
Antoine Costeux ◽  
Gerry LaRue ◽  
John Wilson

Today's modern internal combustion engines are increasingly focused on downsizing, high fuel efficiency and low emissions, which requires appropriate design and technology of turbocharger bearing systems. Automotive turbochargers operate faster and with strong engine excitation; vibration management is becoming a challenge and manufacturers are increasingly focusing on the design of low vibration and high-performance balancing technology. This paper discusses the synchronous vibration management of the ball bearing cartridge turbocharger on high-speed balancer and it is a continuation of papers [1–3]. In a first step, the synchronous rotordynamics behavior is identified. A prediction code is developed to calculate the static and dynamic performance of “ball bearing cartridge-squeeze film damper”. The dynamic behavior of balls is modeled by a spring with stiffness calculated from Tedric Harris formulas and the damping is considered null. The squeeze film damper model is derived from the Osborne Reynolds equation for incompressible and synchronous fluid loading; the stiffness and damping coefficients are calculated assuming that the bearing is infinitely short, and the oil film pressure is modeled as a cavitated π film model. The stiffness and damping coefficients are integrated on a rotordynamics code and the bearing loads are calculated by converging with the bearing eccentricity ratio. In a second step, a finite element structural dynamics model is built for the system “turbocharger housing-high speed balancer fixture” and validated by experimental frequency response functions. In the last step, the rotating dynamic bearing loads on the squeeze film damper are coupled with transfer functions and the vibration on the housings is predicted. The vibration response under single and multi-plane unbalances correlates very well with test data from turbocharger unbalance masters. The prediction model allows a thorough understanding of ball bearing turbocharger vibration on a high speed balancer, thus optimizing the dynamic behavior of the “turbocharger-high speed balancer” structural system for better rotordynamics performance identification and selection of the appropriate balancing process at the development stage of the turbocharger.


Author(s):  
Luis San Andrés ◽  
Thomas Abraham Chirathadam ◽  
Tae-Ho Kim

Engineered metal mesh foil bearings (MMFBs) are a promising low cost bearing technology for oil-free microturbomachinery. In a MMFB, a ring shaped metal mesh provides a soft elastic support to a smooth arcuate foil wrapped around a rotating shaft. This paper details the construction of a MMFB and the static and dynamic load tests conducted on the bearing for estimation of its structural stiffness and equivalent viscous damping. The 28.00 mm diameter 28.05 mm long bearing, with a metal mesh ring made of 0.3 mm copper wire and compactness of 20%, is installed on a test shaft with a slight preload. Static load versus bearing deflection measurements display a cubic nonlinearity with large hysteresis. The bearing deflection varies linearly during loading, but nonlinearly during the unloading process. An electromagnetic shaker applies on the test bearing loads of controlled amplitude over a frequency range. In the frequency domain, the ratio of applied force to bearing deflection gives the bearing mechanical impedance, whose real part and imaginary part give the structural stiffness and damping coefficients, respectively. As with prior art published in the literature, the bearing stiffness decreases significantly with the amplitude of motion and shows a gradual increasing trend with frequency. The bearing equivalent viscous damping is inversely proportional to the excitation frequency and motion amplitude. Hence, it is best to describe the mechanical energy dissipation characteristics of the MMFB with a structural loss factor (material damping). The experimental results show a loss factor as high as 0.7 though dependent on the amplitude of motion. Empirically based formulas, originally developed for metal mesh rings, predict bearing structural stiffness and damping coefficients that agree well with the experimentally estimated parameters. Note, however, that the metal mesh ring, after continuous operation and various dismantling and re-assembly processes, showed significant creep or sag that resulted in a gradual decrease in its structural force coefficients.


Author(s):  
Changhu Xing ◽  
Minel J. Braun ◽  
Hongmin Li

Seals used in the squeeze film damper restrict the side leakage of the lubricant, thus providing a measure of additional damping. In this paper, the serrated piston ring and end-plate seals are studied numerically using CFD-ACE+, a commercially available finite volume based algorithm. Research shows that the damping coefficients for the piston ring seal decrease in magnitude with the increase in the number of axial grooves in the circumferential direction until they reach a fairly constant value. However, the pressure distribution and hence the hydrodynamic forces are strongly affected by the number and geometry of the axial grooves. The damping coefficients for the end plate seal increase in magnitude rapidly with the decrease of the seal clearance below the clearance of the damper, but increase slowly when the seal clearance is larger than that of the damper. The direct inertia coefficient increases with the decrease in the seal clearance but the magnitude of cross-coupled inertia coefficients increases with the decrease in the seal clearance, and then falls down towards the values for the infinitely long bearing assumption. Both the damping and inertia coefficients increase with the increase in seal length.


Author(s):  
Zhu Changsheng

Abstract The behaviors of oil film stiffness and damping coefficients of the deep multi-recessed hybrid squeeze film damper (HSFD) with the orifices compensated are first analysed in this paper. The control ability of the HSFD on the rotor system vibrations is studied theoretically and experimentally with a rigid rotor system supported on the HSFD, and compared with that of the conventional squeeze film damper (SFD). Investigation shows that the HSFD not only can significantly improve the high nonlinearity of the SFD, but also can effectively control the rotor vibrational amplitudes, especially for larger rotor unbalance levels and radial clearance ratios, as compared with the SFD.


Author(s):  
Luis San Andre´s ◽  
Thomas Abraham Chirathadam ◽  
Tae-Ho Kim

Engineered Metal Mesh Foil Bearings (MMFB) are a promising low cost bearing technology for oil-free microturbomachinery. In a MMFB, a ring shaped metal mesh (MM) provides a soft elastic support to a smooth arcuate foil wrapped around a rotating shaft. The paper details the construction of a MMFB and the static and dynamic load tests conducted on the bearing for estimation of its structural stiffness and equivalent viscous damping. The 28.00 mm diameter, 28.05 mm long bearing, with a metal mesh ring made of 0.3 mm Copper wire and compactness of 20%, is installed on a test shaft with a slight preload. Static load versus bearing deflection measurements display a cubic nonlinearity with large hysteresis. The bearing deflection varies linearly during loading, but nonlinearly during the unloading process. An electromagnetic shaker applies on the test bearing loads of controlled amplitude over a frequency range. In the frequency domain, the ratio of applied force to bearing deflection gives the bearing mechanical impedance, whose real part and imaginary part give the structural stiffness and damping coefficients, respectively. As with prior art published in the literature, the bearing stiffness decreases significantly with the amplitude of motion and shows a gradual increasing trend with frequency. The bearing equivalent viscous damping is inversely proportional to the excitation frequency and motion amplitude. Hence, it is best to describe the mechanical energy dissipation characteristics of the MMFB with a structural loss factor (material damping). The experimental results show a loss factor as high as 0.7 though dependent on the amplitude of motion. Empirically based formulas, originally developed for metal mesh rings, predict bearing structural stiffness and damping coefficients agreeing well with the experimentally estimated parameters. Note, however, that the metal mesh ring, after continuous operation and various dismantling and reassembly processes, showed significant creep or sag that resulted in a gradual decrease of its structural force coefficients.


Author(s):  
Yanhong Ma ◽  
Jie Hong ◽  
Dayi Zhang ◽  
Hong Wang

An efficient oil film damper known as a squeeze film damper with valvular metal rubber squeeze film ring (SFD/VMR) was developed for more effective and reliable vibration control, and especially for improving the blade loss dynamics of high-speed rotors based on the conventional squeeze film damper (SFD). The immobile squeeze film ring of the SFD was replaced by the elastic squeeze film ring with the valvular metal rubber subassembly (VMR) of the SFD/VMR. The squeeze film force properties of the SFD/VMR was improved, because it can passively adjust the squeeze film clearance by taking advantage of the elastic deformation of the VMR and can control the squeeze film clearance in a suitable range. The characteristics of squeeze film stiffness and damping coefficients, as well as the steady-state unbalance response of a simple rigid rotor supported on SFD/VMR and SFD, were reported in a previous literature[1]. In this paper, the transient response of the rigid rotor supported on SFD/VMR and SFD subjected to sudden unbalance of blade loss are inverstigated. Time transient simulation and experimental results indicated that SFD/VMR can operate effectively under much greater unbalance compared with SFD, especially under relative large impact loads of blade loss. The SFD/VMR can suppress the occurrence of the nonlinear vibration phenomenon markedly, such as the bistable jump up phenomenon. Furthermore, the effective eccentricities of SFD/VMR with small transfer ratio (T<1.2) extend to two times of SFD, and optimum film stiffness and damping distribution within the whole film clearance can be achieved.


Author(s):  
Kai Feng ◽  
Xueyuan Zhao ◽  
Zhiyang Guo

With increasing need for high-speed, high-temperature, and oil-free turbomachinery, gas foil bearings (GFBs) have been considered to be the best substitutes for traditional oil-lubricated bearings. A multi-cantilever foil bearing (MCFB), a novel GFB with multi-cantilever foil strips serving as the compliant underlying structure, was designed, fabricated, and tested. A series of static and dynamic load tests were conducted to measure the structural stiffness and equivalent viscous damping of the prototype MCFB. Experiments of static load versus deflection showed that the proposed bearing has a large mechanical energy dissipation capability and a pronounced nonlinear static stiffness that can prevents overly large motion amplitude of journal. Dynamic load tests evaluated the influence of motion amplitude, loading orientation and misalignment on the dynamic stiffness and equivalent viscous damping with respect to excitation frequency. The test results demonstrated that the dynamic stiffness and damping are strongly dependent on the excitation frequency. Three motion amplitudes were applied to the bearing housing to investigate the effects of motion amplitude on the dynamic characteristics. It is noted that the bearing dynamic stiffness and damping decreases with incrementally increasing motion amplitudes. A high level of misalignment can lead to larger static and dynamic bearing stiffness as well as to larger equivalent viscous damping. With dynamic loads applied to two orientations in the bearing midplane separately, the dynamic stiffness increases rapidly and the equivalent viscous damping declines slightly. These results indicate that the loading orientation is a non-negligible factor on the dynamic characteristics of MCFBs.


Author(s):  
Jason C. Wilkes ◽  
Dara W. Childs

For several years, researchers have presented predictions showing that using a full tilting-pad journal bearing (TPJB) model (retaining all of the pad degrees of freedom) is necessary to accurately perform stability calculations for a shaft operating on TPJBs. This paper will discuss this issue, discuss the importance of pad and pivot flexibility in predicting impedance coefficients for the tilting-pad journal bearing, present measured changes in bearing clearance with operating temperature, and summarize the differences between measured and predicted frequency dependence of dynamic impedance coefficients. The current work presents recent test data for a 100 mm (4 in) five-pad TPJB tested in load on pad (LOP) configuration. Measured results include bearing clearance as a function of operating temperature, pad clearance and radial displacement of the loaded pad (the pad having the static load vector directed through its pivot), and frequency dependent stiffness and damping. Measured hot bearing clearances are approximately 30% smaller than measured cold bearing clearances and are inversely proportional to pad surface temperature; predicting bearing impedances with a rigid pad and pivot model using these reduced clearances results in overpredicted stiffness and damping coefficients that are several times larger than previous comparisons. The effect of employing a full bearing model versus a reduced bearing model (where only journal degrees of freedom are retained) in a stability calculation for a realistic rotor-bearing system is assessed. For the bearing tested, the bearing coefficients reduced at the frequency of the unstable eigenvalue (subsynchronously reduced) predicted a destabilizing cross-coupled stiffness coefficient at the onset of instability within 1% of the full model, while synchronously reduced coefficients for the lightly loaded bearing required 25% more destabilizing cross-coupled stiffness than the full model to cause system instability. The same stability calculation was performed using measured stiffness and damping coefficients at synchronous and subsynchronous frequencies. These predictions showed that both the synchronously measured stiffness and damping and predictions using the full bearing model were more conservative than the model using subsynchronously measured stiffness and damping, an outcome that is completely opposite from conclusions reached by comparing different prediction models. This contrasting outcome results from a predicted increase in damping with increasing excitation frequency at all speeds and loads; however, this increase in damping with increasing excitation frequency was only measured at the most heavily loaded conditions.


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