Stability and Bifurcations of Rotors in Fluid Film Bearings

To study the nonlinear phenomena of rotors in the sense of bifurcation theory, the mechanical model of a symmetric flexible rotor is investigated which is supported by two identical journal bearings. Two types of journal bearings are considered. While the oil whirl and oil whip oscillations of rotors in plain journal bearings are widely examined, the floating ring bearings cause a quite different vibration behavior with several mode interactions and an area of so-called critical limit cycles leading to a rotor damage. For both types a Hopf bifurcation marks the beginning of the self-excited oscillations in the case of a perfectly balanced rotor. By applying the methods of numerical continuation the occurring limit cycles as well as their stability are determined. The different nonlinear effects with the corresponding bifurcations are explained by describing the global solution behavior of the rotor-bearing systems. (© 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Wear and fluid-solid-thermal transient coupled model for journal bearings

In this study, the transient interactions between the sliding wear behaviour and fluid–solid–thermal (FST) characteristics of journal bearings are revealed using an established mathematical model. The calculated temperature distribution is validated by a comparison with experimental results from the literature. Furthermore, a wear test for lubricated journal bearings is conducted to verify the predicted wear rate. The time-varying wear and FST performances of the journal bearing, including the wear rate, wear depth, fluid pressure, contact pressure, and maximum temperature are calculated numerically. Through numerical simulations, the effects of the boundary friction coefficient and surface roughness on the wear and FST performances are evaluated. To demonstrate the importance of considering the three-dimensional (3D) thermal effect during the wear analysis of lubricated journal bearings, the numerical results predicted by the isothermal model and the thermal model are compared systematically within a wide range of operating conditions. The numerical results reveal that the worn surface profile slightly decreases the maximum temperature. Additionally, the worn region is primarily located at both edges of the bearing, and the time-varying worn surface profile may be beneficial for improving the hydrodynamic effect. Furthermore, the effect of the 3D thermal characteristics on the wear prediction of journal bearings cannot be ignored when the external load, boundary friction coefficient, surface roughness are relatively large.     

On the dynamics of a nonlinear rotor-floating ring bearing system

Today, in high speed applications the rotors are commonly supported by hydrodynamic journal bearings. One typical configuration of journal bearings incorporated in automotive turbochargers is the floating ring bearing. Rotors supported by floating ring bearings have many advantages, regarding costs and power consumption for example. However, they might become unstable with increasing speed of rotation. At the onset of instability both the perfectly balanced and unbalanced rotor undergo self-excited vibrations which could cause the mechanical breakdown of the system. The “oil whip”-phenomenon, very well known from the investigations of the plain journal bearing occurs here in a different form. At the stability limit the rotor begins either oscillating with about the half of the ring speed or the half of the ring speed plus the half of the journal speed depending on the system parameters. For this reason a rotor-floating ring bearing model is presented showing the mentioned characteristics. By applying the nonlinear equations of motion the limit cycles of the system are determined and its loss of stability is investigated. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Nonlinear stability analysis of rotor-bearing systems

High-speed rotors supported by floating ring bearings exhibit beside self-excited vibrations various nonlinear vibration effects, which may cause the damage of the rotor. After deriving the equations of motion of a perfectly balanced turbocharger rotor supported by floating ring bearings, bifurcation analyses are carried out with both rigid and flexible model by applying numerical continuation methods. Thereby, the main focus of the investigation is on the critical bifurcations emanating destructive limit-cycle oscillations of higher amplitudes. Finally, the influence of the shaft elasticity on the critical limit-cycle oscillations is discussed. (© 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A new nonlinear dynamic analysis method of rotor system supported by oil-film journal bearings

The strong nonlinear behavior usually exists in rotor systems supported by oil-film journal bearings. In this paper, the partial derivative method is extended to the second-order approximate extent to predict the nonlinear dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of finite-long journal bearings. And the nonlinear oil-film forces approximately represented by dynamic coefficients are used to analyze nonlinear dynamic performance of a symmetrical flexible rotor-bearing system via the journal orbit, phase portrait and Poincaré map. The effects of mass eccentricity on dynamic behaviors of rotor system are mainly investigated. Moreover, the computational method of nonlinear dynamic coefficients of infinite-short bearing is presented. The nonlinear oil-film forces model of finite-long bearing is validated by comparing the numerical results with those obtained by an infinite-short bearing-rotor system model. The results show that the representation method of nonlinear oil-film forces by dynamic coefficients has universal applicability and allows one easily to conduct the nonlinear dynamic analysis of rotor systems.     

Application of stabilized term in free boundary problems for optimizing bi-directional-rotation herringbone-grooved journal bearings

In order to deal with the free boundary problems occurred in cavitation region, this work incorporates an artificial term in Reynolds equation to stabilize the solution. The current result shows that adding the extra term gives accurate pressure distribution and benefits the selection of the groove shape and size. In addition, this study utilizes herringbone grooves on a reversible rotating journal bearing (RHGJB) and numerically analyzes the characteristics of miniature journal bearings with an inner diameter of 0.6 mm. Miniature journal bearings are limited in that the load capacity is significantly reduced with decreased bearing size, and therefore, the performances (load capacity and side leakage) of miniature RHGJBs are optimized. The optimum geometrical appearance of miniature RHGJBs is calculated by evaluating several groove parameters. Using the Taguchi parameter design methodology greatly reduces the number of full-factorial experimental design tests required to determine the optimal design parameters of the RHGJB from 5⁹ (1,953,125) to 450 runs.     

Numerical and experimental study of the flow in an eccentric Couette-Taylor system with small gap

Various papers were dedicated to the technical and industrial aspects of the Taylor–Couette flow, by analyzing the flow structure in dependence of characteristic parameters. Also some studies concerning the influence of an eccentrical position of the rotating inner cylinder relatively to the fixed outer cylinder exist in the case of a large gap width. The principal technical application of such studies is the flow in journal bearings where the gap width is very small, of the order 0.1\% relative to the inner cylinder radius. Analytical and numerical investigations of the flow in journal bearings are generally based on the two–dimensional Reynolds approximation. This investigation in aiming at a validation of the range where the Reynolds equation is applicable in relation to the characteristical parameters: gap width, eccentricity and Reynolds number. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Dynamic analysis of short and long journal bearings in laminar and turbulent regimes,application in critical shaft stiffness determination

Linear and non-linear stability of a flexible rotor-bearing system supported on short and long journal bearings is studied for both laminar and turbulent operating conditions. The turbulent pressure distribution and forces are calculated analytically from the modified Reynolds equation based on two turbulent models; Constantinescu's and Ng–Pan–Elrod. Hopf bifurcation theory was utilized to estimate the local stability of periodic solutions near bifurcating operating points. The shaft stiffness was found to play an important role in bifurcating regions on the stable boundaries. It was found that for shafts supported on short journal bearings with shaft stiffness above a critical value, the dangerous subcritical region can be eliminated from a range of operating conditions with high static load. The results presented have been verified by published results in the open literature.     

The influences of longitudinal surface roughness on sub-critical and super-critical limit cycles of short journal bearings

By applying the stochastic model of rough surfaces by Christensen (1969–1970, 1971)  and  together with the Hopf bifurcation theory by Hassard et al. (1981) [3], the present study is mainly concerned with the influences of longitudinal roughness patterns on the linear stability regions, Hopf bifurcation regions, sub-critical and super-critical limit cycles of short journal bearings. It is found that the longitudinal rough-surface bearings can exhibit Hopf bifurcation behaviors in the vicinity of bifurcation points. For fixed bearing parameter, the effects of longitudinal roughness structures provide an increase in the linear stability region, as well as a reduction in the size of sub-critical and super-critical limit cycles as compared to the smooth-bearing case.     

Fully Coupled Thermo-Hydrodynamic Simulation Model for Journal Bearings

The isothermal form of Reynolds fluid film equation is used to predict the pressure generation in hydrodynamic journal bearings if temperature effects are neglected. Often, however, temperature effects may be important and cannot be neglected, because oil viscosity significantly varies with temperature. Also, thermal expansion of journal shaft and bearing housing must be taken into account since the bearing clearance changes with increasing temperature. Hence, the Reynolds pressure field equation, the energy equation for the fluid film and the heat transfer equations for journal and bearing housing have to be solved simultaneously. The coupled thermo-hydrodynamic fluid flow problem is mathematically defined by a system of nonlinear integro-differential equations. The governing equations are discretized and solved by a finite element approach. (© 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

磁轴承失灵后坠落转子瞬态振动灾变机理研究

研究一个带磁轴承的转子系统,在磁轴承失灵后转子坠入备用轴承引起的非线性瞬态振动。通过严格建立运动方程和数值仿真计算,详尽地分析了坠落转子转动角速度变化和轴颈与备用轴承接触点法向力变化的时间历程及备用轴承振动位移的频谱,发现系统发生灾变破坏的原因是由于高速不平衡阻尼转子减速通过临界速度时引起的强烈非稳态受迫弯曲振动加上轴颈与备用轴承接触点碰摩的非线性引起的高频颤振。     

Homogenization of Reynolds Equation by Two-Scale Convergence

To increase the hydrodynamic performance in different machine elements, as e.g. journal bearings and thrust bearings, during lubrication it is important to understand the influence of surface roughness. In this connection one encounters homogenization of the incompressible Reynolds equation, where the roughness of the lubricated surface is assumed to be periodic. This problem has recently been studied in more engineering-oriented papers by using the formal method of multiple scale expansion. In this paper, we rigorously prove both homogenization and corrector results by using two-scale convergence, which may be regarded as a justification of the formal multiple scale expansion method described above. Moreover, some numerical illustrations and results are presented.     

Wear resistance of metal polymer combinations

The possibilities of using polymer protectors in journal bearings are investigated, and the effects of operating conditions on the wear of metal/metal-polymer composition friction pairs are investigated.Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 2, No. 4, 580–584, 1966     

Numerical study of flow asymmetry and self-sustained jet oscillations in geometrically symmetric cavities

In this paper we present the results of numerical investigation of self-sustained oscillations of a jet confined in a symmetric cavity. This work represents an attempt to reproduce empirical observations of asymmetric flows in geometrically symmetric systems and to extend the jet flow investigations to more complex possible scenarios. A well-known example of such two-dimensional flow has been reported experimentally and reproduced numerically for simple flow [E. Schreck, M. Schaefer, Numerical study or bifurcation in three-dimensional sudden channel expansions, Comput. Fluids 29 (2000) 583–593]. It has been found that for some particular control parameter, above its critical value (bifurcation point), the jet can be deflected to either of the two sides of the cavity. In this paper we report a similar behaviour which is, however, characterized by a more complicated flow pattern. While simple flow appears only within small cavity lengths the complex flows develops with increased cavity lengths. Unlike stationary asymmetric solutions accompanied by cavity jet oscillations, as experimentally reported in e.g., [A. Maurel, P. Ern, B.J.A. Zielinska, J.E. Wesfreid, Experimental study of self-sustained oscillations in a confined jet, Phys Rev. E 54 (1996) 3643–3651], in our investigations of both simple and complex asymmetric flow we observed the slow periodical drift of the jet from one to another side of the cavity. The essential control parameters were Reynolds number Re and the ratio length to inlet width L/d. According to experiments of Maurel et al. (1996), the jet is stable and symmetric, when both L/d and Re are below certain critical values, otherwise jet oscillations appear in both experiment and our simulation (cavity oscillations regime). However, further increase of either (or both) L/d and Re leads of so called free jet type oscillations regime. This paper describes complex jet behaviour within the later oscillations regime. We believe that both simple “classical” and “our” complex stationary asymmetric solutions (as well as superimposed cavity-type and free-jet oscillations) can be explained based on physical arguments as already done in previous works. However, the origin of slow drift motion remains still to be resolved. This might be of high importance for clear distinguishing between relevant physical and numerical features in future codes developments.     

Sensitivity of Computational Rotor Dynamics Towards the Empirically Estimated Lubrication Gap Clearance of Foil Air Journal Bearings

This contribution is concerned with the computational analysis of a rigid rotor supported by means of two self-acting foil air journal bearings. Even though the overall equation system is thereby typically written in a nondimensional form, prior knowledge about realistic value ranges of occurring dimensionless numbers is required in order to parameterize and interpret such simulations correctly. Unlike all other quantities, the nominal lubrication gap clearance between the rotating journal and the undeformed foil structure is reported to be only poorly known. Thus, even in the light of an advanced understanding of the bearing rotor system's fundamental behavior, the quantitative reproduction and prediction of experimental results by means of computational analysis need to be viewed critically. In this study, the sensitivity of numerical results towards the assumed nominal lubrication gap clearance will be investigated. To this end, the stability of the system is considered and the characteristics of occasionally observed equilibrium points and limit cycles are addressed. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Chaotic response and bifurcation analysis of a flexible rotor supported by porous and non-porous bearings with nonlinear suspension

This study presents numerical work investigating the dynamic responses of a flexible rotor supported by porous journal bearings. Both porous and non-porous bearing types are taken into consideration in this study. The rotating speed ratios and imbalance parameters are also presented and proved to be important control parameters. Many non-periodic responses to chaotic and quasi-periodic motions are found, too. From the bifurcation diagrams in this paper, it is also evidenced that the vibration behaviors would be improved by porous bearings. The modeling result obtained here can be employed to predict the dynamics of bearing–rotor systems, and undesirable behavior of the rotor and bearing orbits can be avoided. Also, this could help engineers and researchers in designing and studying bearing–rotor systems or some turbo-machinery in the future.     

Non-linear dynamic analysis of a flexible rotor supported on porous oil journal bearings

In the present paper, the non-linear dynamic analysis of a flexible rotor with a rigid disk under unbalance excitation mounted on porous oil journal bearings at the two ends is carried out. The system equation of motion is obtained by finite element formulation of Timoshenko beam and the disk. The non-linear oil-film forces are calculated from the solution of the modified Reynolds equation simultaneously with Darcy’s equation. The system equation of motion is then solved by the Wilson-θ method. Bifurcation diagrams, Poincaré maps, time response, journal trajectories, FFT-spectrum, etc. are obtained to study the non-linear dynamics of the rotor-bearing system. The effect of various non-dimensional rotor-bearing parameters on the bifurcation characteristics of the system is studied. It is shown that the system undergoes Hopf bifurcation as the speed increases. Further, slenderness ratio, material properties of the rotor, ratio of disk mass to shaft mass and permeability of the porous bush are shown to have profound effect on the bifurcation characteristics of the rotor-bearing system.     

Forced oscillations of an unbalanced rotor in nonisotropic bearings

The influence of anisotropy of elastic bearings on forced oscillations of a rotor with the static and moment unbalance is studied for the cases of its fastening on a rigid shaft and on a flexible one. The rotor with four degrees of freedom is considered. It is suggested that the shaft is fixed in linear elastic nonisotropic bearings. The differential equations of rotation of the rotor are written in complex variables, and an exact solution to the equation system is found that corresponds to the elliptical synchronous precession. The exact solution is a sum of two vectors, one of which parameterizes a forward precession, while another parameterizes a reverse precession. Amplitude-frequency characteristics of forward and reverse precessions and elliptical trajectories of the rotor axis ends are constructed. It is shown that, in case of nonisotropic bearings, both the forward and reverse precession, as well as the axis motion of nonsimple type (when its one end is moving forward, while another is moving in the reverse direction), can take place. The influence of anisotropy of elastic bearings also manifests itself by change in critical frequencies towards their reduction and by arising of additional critical frequencies in the bottom part of the spectrum, which significantly complicates dynamics of the high-speed rotor at the moment when it reaches the working angular speed.     

Analysis of Infinitely Short MHD Journal Bearings with Toroidal Magnetic Field

Using the approximation of short journal bearings, analytical solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic form of Reynold's bearing equation are derived. The basis of the approach are the MHD basic equations. The ordinary hydrodynamic assumptions of lubrication are applied. The flow is assumed to be isothermal. Induced magnetic fields are neglected. The Lorentz force is the only body force acting on the fluid. A constant and uniform magnetic field is applied in circumferential direction. The electric field is oriented in radial direction.     

Effect of bottom topography on the unsteady behaviour of an elastic plate floating on shallow water

The unsteady behaviour of a thin elastic plate in the form of a strip of constant width and infinite length, floating on the surface of an ideal and incompressible liquid, is investigated within the limits of the linear shallow-water theory. The unsteady behaviour of the plate is caused by initial disturbances or an external load. The depth of the liquid under the plate is variable. It is assumed that all the flow characteristics are independent of the coordinate along the plate. The deflection of the plate is sought in the form of an expansion in eigenfunctions of the oscillations in a vacuum with time-varying amplitudes. The problem reduces to solving an infinite system of ordinary differential equations for the unknown amplitudes. The behaviour of the plate is investigated for different actions and shapes of bottom irregularities. It is shown that the bottom topography can have a considerable effect on the deformation of the plate.