THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF A VARIABLE-IMPEDANCE HYDRODYNAMIC BEARING

The aim of the work described in this paper is to develop a hydrodynamic bearing whose oil film dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients could be tuned to take on low values, without upsetting the bearing steady load carrying capacity, in order to obtain an improved dynamic response for machines running in such bearings. It was required that this tuning of the bearing dynamic characteristics could be carried out after assembly of the machine in question, and if necessary while the machine was in operation. A theoretical analysis of the new design of bearing was carried out, based on a finite-difference model of the bearing oil film. This analysis enabled the steady-state load carrying capacity of the bearing to be calculated for any particular running conditions. The oil film stiffness and damping characteristics were then calculated using the finite-displacement technique; these were then used to calculate the unbalance response of a flexible rotor running in such bearings. Experimental measurements of the unbalance response of a model rotor running in the new bearing design were also recorded, and compared with similar measurements obtained when conventional bearings were used. Both theoretical and experimental results show that the proposed new bearing design has a similar steady load carrying capacity to that of conventional hydrodynamic bearings, but that the unbalanced response and force transmissibility of machines running in the new design of bearing are substantially superior to that obtained with conventional bearings.