A Statistical Method to Compute the Dynamic Coefficients of a Tilting Pad Journal Bearing

In this work, a statistical method to determine the dynamic coefficients of Tilting Pad Journal Bearings (TPJBs) is described. The method is based on a priori modelling of the dependency of the dynamic coefficients on the excitation frequency, on the estimation of the forces acting on bearing as a function of the estimated displacements (using a linear model) and, finally, on a search of the optimum functions by minimization of the squares of the normalized residuals of displacements and forces on bearings. Normalization is done by dividing the residuals by estimating the standard deviation of the forces and displacements. The results for a flooded Rocker Back TPJB are presented.