The Influence of Oil-Film Journal Bearings on the Stability of Rotating Machines

1946 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. A211-A220
Author(s):  
A. C. Hagg

Abstract The self-excited vibration caused by the lubricating films of journal bearings and commonly called oil-film whirl or oil whip is discussed. The upper limit of whirling frequency has been found to be one-half rotational frequency in the general case; actually the phenomenon will manifest itself at a frequency which is invariably below this limit. Stability criteria have been developed for certain common systems in terms of bearing and rotor parameters. The tilting-pad bearing of Michell has been established as a so-called “stable” or “nonwhirling” bearing. This bearing and related types are probably the only oil-film journal bearings which are incapable of exciting oil whip, regardless of the system to which they are applied. Qualitatively the results of the paper appear to be in agreement with observations. In certain cases, results have been substantiated experimentally.

1983 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. Adams ◽  
S. Payandeh

A time-transient nonlinear dynamic analysis is presented to study the motion of statically unloaded journal-bearing tilting pads. The major finding is that unloaded pads can exhibit a strong sub-synchronous self-excited vibration. The frequency of this periodic motion is somewhat below half the rotational speed and bears a close relationship to self-excited oil-whip vibration of rotors on lightly loaded non-tilting pad journal bearings. The identification of this type of self-excited pad vibration has practical significance to the solution of problems in applications involving damage to unloaded pads. A comprehensive parametric study is presented and shows which tilting-pad journal bearing parameters are significant to self-excited pad vibration and its elimination.


Lubricants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Steven Chatterton ◽  
Paolo Pennacchi ◽  
Andrea Vania ◽  
Phuoc Vinh Dang

Tilting-pad journal bearings (TPJBs) are widely installed in rotating machines owing to their high stability, but some drawbacks can be noted, such as higher cost with respect to cylindrical journal bearings and thermal issues. High temperatures in the pads correspond to low oil-film thicknesses and large thermal deformations in the pads. Therefore, the restriction of the maximum temperature of the bearing is a key aspect for oil-film bearings. The temperature reduction is generally obtained by adopting higher oil inlet flowrates or suitable oil nozzles. In this paper, the idea of using cooled pads with internal channels in which an external cooling fluid is circulated will be applied to a TPJB for the first time. The three-dimensional TEHD model of the TPJB, equipped with a cooled pad, will be introduced, and the results of the numerical simulations will be discussed. Several analyses have been performed in order to investigate the influence of cooling conditions, such as the type, flowrate, inlet temperature and number of cooled pads. Two types of pad geometry with different cross-sections of the cooling circuit, namely, circular and six-square multi-channel sections, have been compared to the reference bearing with solid pads. Simple experimental tests were performed by means of a test rig equipped with a cooled pad bearing obtained with the additive manufacturing process, thus showing the effectiveness of the solution and the agreement with the predictions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 147-149 ◽  
pp. 450-455
Author(s):  
Stanislaw Strzelecki ◽  
Sobhy M. Ghoneam

This paper introduces the results of theoretical investigation on the dynamic characteristics of tilting 3-pad journal bearing that operates with turbulent oil film. The Reynolds, energy, viscosity and geometry equations determine the oil film pressure, temperature distributions, and oil film resultant force that are the grounds for the dynamic characteristics of bearing. These equations were solved simultaneously on the assumption of adiabatic laminar or adiabatic turbulent oil flow in the bearing gap. The stability and system damping of Jeffcott rotor operating in tilting 3-pad journal bearing was determined.


2021 ◽  
pp. 112-112
Author(s):  
Yuchuan Zhu ◽  
Zhengyi Jiang ◽  
Ling Yan ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Fangfang Ai ◽  
...  

As heavy industry develops, large amounts of tilting-pad journal bearings are widely used in advanced technology and key equipment. So, it has become a hot research direction to ensure the stable operation of tilting-pad journal bearings by using multiphase lubricating oil. The aim of the present research was to clarify whether using the multiphase lubricating oil has a positive effect on the performance of the bearings. The approach is based on computational multiphase fluid dynamics and finite-element method. Reynolds averaged equations of multiphase flow was applied to computation for improving the accuracy. The change of loading capacity of oil film was studied with computational fluid dynamics simulation under particles added to the lubricating oil. The results indicate that the bearing capacity of bearing increases when the particle content, diameter and density increase. The performance of bearing becomes better when the multiphase lubricating oil is applied in the oil film of bearing. The implications of these results are that the development of multiphase lubricating oil has important practical significances.


Author(s):  
Steven Chatterton ◽  
Paolo Pennacchi ◽  
Andrea Vania ◽  
Mohamed Amine Hassini ◽  
Antoine Kuczkowiak

Abstract Many industrial rotating machines are equipped with hydrodynamic journal bearings, such as centrifugal compressors, steam turbines, pumps and motors. After some time from the installation, however, the surface of the bearings often presents imperfections and slight damages mainly caused by the presence of harder particles in the lubricant during start-ups and shut-downs, when the hydrodynamic mechanism is not well developed and the mixed lubrication can occur. The presence of scratches on a bearing can lead to variations of the oil film thickness which, in turn, causes significant degradation of the bearing hydrodynamic performance. For example, the reduction of the minimum oil-film thickness can lead to the increase in the local temperature, to local pressure peaks and, finally, to the failure of the bearing. Experimental data relating to scratches on journal bearings are extremely limited in the literature especially for tilting-pad journal bearings (TPJBs). An experimental activity was carried out to study the effect of artificial scratches on pads on the static and dynamic behaviors of a TPJB. The number of scratches, the depth and the axial position have been investigated and the dynamic coefficients have been estimated as well. The experimental results confirmed a degradation of the dynamic performance of the bearing in case of scratches, that it has has been also confirmed by means of numerical simulations.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan Zhang ◽  
Peng Yin ◽  
Yuyang Liu ◽  
Jianmei Wang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of pivot stiffness on the dynamic characteristics of tilting-pad journal bearings (TPJBs) and the stability of the bearing-rotor system. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical numerical model is established, and the influences of pivot stiffness on TPJBs and a bearing-rotor system are analyzed. Then, two kinds of pivot structures with different stiffness are designed and the vibration characteristics are tested on the vertical rotor bearing test bench. Findings The pivot stiffness has an obvious effect on the dynamic characteristics of the TPJBs and the stability of the bearing-rotor system. As a result of appropriate pivot stiffness, the critical speed and the vibration amplification factor can be reduced, the logarithmic decay rate and the stability of the rotor system can be effectively increased. While the journal whirl orbit is smoother and the rubbing is obviously reduced when the bearings have flexible pivots. Originality/value The influence of pivot stiffness on TPJBs and a vertical rotor-bearing system is studied by theoretical and experimental methods.


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