Bifurcation and nonlinear dynamic analysis of a rigid rotor supported by two-lobe noncircular gas-lubricated journal bearing system

This paper presents the study of the dynamic analysis of a rigid rotor supported by a two-lobe non-circular gas-lubricated journal bearing. A finite element method has been employed to solve the Reynolds equation in static and dynamical states and the dynamical equations have been solved using Runge–Kutta method. To analyze the behavior of the rotor center in horizontal and vertical directions under the different operating conditions, the dynamic trajectory, the power spectra, the Poincare maps, and the bifurcation diagrams are used. Results of this study indicates that by considering bearing number and rotor mass as the parameters of the system, complex dynamic behavior comprising periodic, KT-periodic, and quasi-periodic responses of the rotor center has occurred.