DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF A CRACKED FLEXIBLE ROTOR SUPPORTED ON JOURNAL BEARINGS

The dynamic behavior of a cracked flexible rotor supported on three kinds ofjournal bearings is presented. Numerical experiments show that nonsynchronous responseswill happen due to the rotor crack, and the amplitudes of the nonsynchronous componentsbecome larger with the increase of crack. On the other hand, the fluid forces of journalbearings can suppress the nonsynchronous response. The (1/2) × or (3/2) × harmoniccomponent rarely appears for small crack near the rotating speed ratio Ω = 2Ωc or Ω =(2/3)Ωc. In the case of supercritical rotating speed, the additional 0× harmonic component is increased as the crack increases. The bearing parameters affect greatly the occur-rence of the nonsynchronous responses by means of exerting innuence on the critical spedand the stabi1ity of the system.

Characteristics of the Main Journal Bearings of an Engine Based on Non-linear Dynamics

Many simple nonlinear main journal bearing models have been studied theoretically, but the connection to existing engineering system has not been equally investigated. The consideration of the characteristics of engine main journal bearings may provide a prediction of the bearing load and lubrication. Due to the strong non-linear features in bearing lubrication procedure, it is difficult to predict those characteristics. A non-linear dynamic model is described for analyzing the characteristics of engine main journal bearings. Components such as crankshaft, main journals and con rods are found by applying the finite element method. Non-linear spring/dampers are introduced to imitate the constraint and supporting functions provided by the main bearing and oil film. The engine gas pressure is imposed as excitation on the model via the engine piston, con rod, etc. The bearing reaction force is calculated over one engine cycle, and meanwhile, the oil film thickness and pressure distribution are obtained based on Reynolds differential equation. It can be found that the maximum bearing reaction force always occurs when the maximum cylinder pressure arises in the cylinder adjacent to that bearing. The simulated minimum oil film thickness, which is 3 μm, demonstrates the reliability of the main journal bearings. This non-linear dynamic analysis may save computing efforts of engine main bearing design and also is of good precision and close connection to actual engine main journal bearing conditions.

Performance of dynamically loaded journal bearings lubricated with couple stress fluids considering the elasticity of the liner

To take into account the couple stress effects, a modified Reynolds equation is derived for dynamically loaded journal beatings with the consideration of the elasticity of the liner. The numerical results show that the influence of couple stresses on the bearing characteristics is significant. Compared with Newtonian lubricants, lubricants with couple stresses increase the fluid film pressure, as a result enhance the load-carrying capacity and reduce the friction coefficient. However, since the elasticity of the liner weakens the couple stress effect, elastic liners yield a reduction in the load-carrying capacity and an increase in the friction coefficient. The elastic deformation of the bearing liner should be considered in an accurate performance evaluation of the journal bearing.

Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Fluid Structure Interaction Techniques for Calculating the 3D Transient Flow of Journal Bearings Coupled with Rotor Systems

Journal bearings are important parts to keep the high dynamic performance of rotor machinery. Some methods have already been proposed to analysis the flow field of journal bearings, and in most of these methods simplified physical model and classic Reynolds equation are always applied. While the application of the general computational fluid dynamics （CFD）-fluid structure interaction （FSI） techniques is more beneficial for analysis of the fluid field in a journal bearing when more detailed solutions are needed. This paper deals with the quasi-coupling calculation of transient fluid dynamics of oil film in journal bearings and rotor dynamics with CFD-FSI techniques. The fluid dynamics of oil film is calculated by applying the so-called ＂dynamic mesh＂ technique. A new mesh movement approacb is presented while the dynamic mesh models provided by FLUENT are not suitable for the transient oil flow in journal bearings. The proposed mesh movement approach is based on the structured mesh. When the joumal moves, the movement distance of every grid in the flow field of bearing can be calculated, and then the update of the volume mesh can be handled automatically by user defined function （UDF）. The journal displacement at each time step is obtained by solving the moving equations of the rotor-bearing system under the known oil film force condition. A case study is carried out to calculate the locus of the journal center and pressure distribution of the journal in order to prove the feasibility of this method. The calculating results indicate that the proposed method can predict the transient flow field of a journal bearing in a rotor-bearing system where more realistic models are involved. The presented calculation method provides a basis for studying the nonlinear dynamic behavior of a general rotor-bearing system.

A Transient Thermohydrodynamics Study of Plain Journal Bearings Using Newton-Raphson Method Analysis

The present paper proposes three-dimensional model necessary to calculate the transient temperature field in a journal bearing submitted to a sudden change in speed and load and analyzes the bearing performance numerically. Thermal deformation of the bush and realistic thermal boundary conditions at oil and bush interface are considered. At each time step a Newton-Raphson method is used to solve the Reynolds equation, film thickness equation and the motion equation of the journal simultaneously to obtain the pressure distribution and the velocity of the journal center. Then the fluid film force is acquired through integral of fluid film force and the acceleration and position of the journal center are acquired through differences of the velocity. The energy equations of the oil film and the bush are solved simultaneously by using an efficient finite difference scheme. Then the transient three dimensional temperature field of the bearing is acquired by combining the energy equations and the Reynolds equation through the nodal temperature and pressure. It is found that the approaches introduced here converge quickly and save calculation time greatly.

STUDY ON THE INFLUENCES OF BUBBLY OIL ON THE CAVITATION EROSION IN JOURNAL BEARINGS OF ENGINES

A simulating experimental device for journal bearings of engines is established by use of the mechanism of ultrasonic vibration This device can make the pressure inside the oil film changed at ultrasonic frequency,which enable the specimen surface to be damaged by cavitation erosion in a comparatively short time Connecting with the bubbly oil producing device,this rig can investigate the influence of bubbly oil on the cavitation erosion Through detailed experimental research it is found that the bubbly oil decreases the cavitation erosion in journal bearings of engines This result is analyzed reasonably from mechanism of cavitation erosion.

Lubrication condition monitoring of journal bearings in diesel engine based on thermoelectricity

There is still a lack of effective lubrication condition monitoring methods in the field of diesel engines.The paper proposes a novel thermoelectric approach to divide the lubrication state of bearings.First,the generation mechanism of thermoelectric potential on bearings is clarified.Then,both experimental and simulation studies are done,and a strong correlation between lubrication and thermoelectric potential is shown.The film thickness and temperature are further confirmed as significant factors influencing thermoelectric potential.Generally,the thermoelectric potential increases with temperature.However,a small film thickness ratio(when the film thickness ratio is less than 4)will suppress the thermoelectric potential.Three typical lubrication states of bearings are distinguished through thermoelectric potential and supported by the Stribeck curve results.Moreover,the significant influence of lubrication on the bearing is confirmed through the analysis of surface morphology and composition.

Stability analysis of long hydrodynamic journal bearings based on the journal center trajectory

In this study,we observe that there are two threshold speeds(stability threshold speed and second threshold speed)for the long journal bearing,which is different for the short bearing.When the rotating speed is below the stability threshold speed,the stability boundary nearly coincides with the clearance circle,and the journal center gradually returns to the equilibrium point after being released at an initial point.If the rotating speed is between the stability threshold speed and the second threshold speed,after being released at an initial point,the journal center converges to a contour containing the equilibrium point.In this situation,for a higher rotating speed,the corresponding contour is also larger.When the rotating speed exceeds the second threshold speed,the journal gradually moves towards the bearing surface after being released at an initial point.

Transformation between polar and rectangular coordinates of stiffness and dampness parameters in hydrodynamic journal bearings

The stiffness and dampness parameters of journal bearings are required in rectangular coordinates for analyzing the stability boundary and threshold speed of oil film bearings.On solving the Reynolds equation,the oil film force is always obtained in polar coordinates;thus,the stiffness and dampness parameters can be easily obtained in polar coordinates.Therefore,the transformation between the polar and rectangular coordinates of journal bearing stiffness and dampness parameters is discussed in this study.

New numerical solution for self-acting gas journal bearings

Taking a small pressure change in the gas film of self-acting gas-lubricated journal bearings into account, the corresponding nonlinear Reynolds equation is linearized through appropriate approximation and a modified Reynolds equation is derived and solved by means of the finite difference method (FDM). The gas film pressure distribution of a self-acting gas-lubricated journal bearing is attained and the load capacity is calculated. The numerical solution has a better agreement with experimental data than a direct numerical solution for different values of the bearing number. It is of interest to note that the eccentricity ratio, at which the new numerical solution is in better agreement with experimental data, is different when the bearing number is changing. The new numerical solution is slightly larger when the eccentricity ratio is smaller, and becomes slightly smaller when the eccentricity ratio is larger.

NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL ELASTOHYDRODYNAMIC LUBRICATION FOR HEAVILY-LOADED FINITE JOURNAL BEARINGS

Elastohydrodynamic lubrication theory is combination of classical hydrodynamic lubrication and elastic theory. A coupling of finite element and boundary element method was applied to the analysis of 3-D elastohydro-dynamic lubrication for heavily-loaded finite journal bearings. In order to overcome difficulties of convergence at high eccentricity ratios, an iterative scheme was provided in this paper. The scheme called weighted average method was successfully carried out in the iterative procedures of a set of nonlinear equations that was constituted by a 2-D Reynolds' equation, a viscosity-pressure equation as well as 3-D elasticity equations. The analysis yields performances parameters and minimum film thickness of the finite journal bearings under heavy loading.

Diagnosis System for Journal Bearings on the Basis of Spectrograph and Ferrography Analysis

A diagnosis system and a diagnosis example for journal bearings, based on the analysis with ferrography and spectrometric oil analysis is introduced. It is able to predict the failures of journal bearings on three levels. Also, the failure modes and diagnosis rules of journals are described.

The Prediction of Dynamic Coefficients for Tilting-Pad Journal Bearings Based on an AGA-BP Neural Network

To provide real-time dynamic coefficients of tilting-pad journal bearings( TPJBs) for the dynamic analysis of a rotor-bearing system accurately,an improved error back propagation( BP) neural network model is built in this paper.First,the samples are gained by solving the Reynolds equation with the finite differential method based on hydrodynamic lubrication theory.Secondly,the adaptive genetic algorithm( AGA) is applied to optimize the initial weights and thresholds of the BP neural network before training.Then,with a number of trial calculations,the optimum parameters for the neural network are obtained.Finally,an application case of the neural network is given as well as the results analysis.The results show that the AGA can efficiently prevent the training of the neural network from falling into a local minimum,and the AGA-BP neural network of dynamic coefficients for TPJBs built in this paper can meet the demand of engineering.

Performance behaviour of elliptical-bore journal bearings lubricated with solid granular particulates

Journal bearings operating in hot environments and at high temperatures experience accelerated degra- dation of lubricating oils. In such situations, dry granular particulates have emerged as potential media for providing lubrication in journal bearings in place of lubricating oils. Granular particulates do not degrade thermally, even at considerably high temperatures. This work explores the static and dynamic perfor- mance characteristics of elliptical-bore journal bearings lubricated with granular particulates. It is found that a bearing lubricated with a larger size （2 μm） particles offers better performance compared with that using smaller size （1μm） particles. Bore ellipticity reduces the load-carrying capacity and increases side leakage and the coefficient of friction; however, rotor stability is marginally improved at low eccentricity ratios （〈0.6）, followed by significant improvement at high eccentricity ratios （〉0.6）.

Effects of Load Direction on Performance of Tiliting Pad Journal Bearings

At the previous works for tilting journal pad bearings （TPJBs）, most TPJBs are designed to operate with the load either directly on-pad（LOP） or directly between-pad（LBP）. However, in practice, in some cases, the load direction can change dramatically in operation. With the current requirements for the analysis of dynamic characteristics of the rotor-bearing systems, the effects of the load direction on the bearing performance must be known. So, in this paper, the effects of load direction on the static and dynamic characteristics of TPJBs are obtained with theoretical analysis based on the hydrodynamic lubrication theory, and the influence of load direction on the performance of TPJBs in different structure and operating parameters is also analysed. The results show that the load direction has considerable effects on the static and dynamic characteristics of the TPJBs, especially for the TPJBs that are operating under heavy load and high rotor speed. And for the operating condition that load direction changed rapidly, TPJBs with more pads, smaller length to diameter ratio, larger clearance ratio and smaller perload ratio can reduce the performance fluctuation with the variation of load direction.

EFFECTS OF MANUFACTURING ERRORS ON GAS LUBRICATED JOURNAL BEARING WITH COMPLIANT SURFACE

A theoretical study has been performed to investigate the influence of manufacturing errors on the bearing housing of a gas lubricated journal bearing with compliant surface I in particular on the bearing load capacity. A gas film thickness distribution is presented, in which errors o f both circumferential and axial bearing housing are considered. The influence of the errors on bearing performance is compared between rigid and compliant surface bearings. It was shown that the compliant surface bearings are less sensitive to the manufacturing errors than the rigid surface bearings. Thelefore, the cost of compliant surface bearing could be reduced by setting a larger manufacturing error tolerance.

THERMOHYDRODYNAMIC LUBRICATION ANALYSIS ON EQUILIBRIUM POSITION AND DYNAMIC COEFFICIENT OF JOURNAL BEARING

The finite element method （FEM） is introduced to calculate the oil film pressure and temperature distribution of a journal bearing. The perturbation is performed directly on the finite element equation. Consequently, the Jacobian matrices of the oil film forces are concisely obtained. The equilibrium position of the bearing with a given static load is found by the Newton-Raphson method. As byproducts, dynamic coefficients are obtained simultaneously without any extra computing time. From the numerical results, it is concluded that the effects of film temperature on stiffness coefficients are bigger than those on damping coefficients. With the increase of rotational speed, the load capacity and the stiffness coefficients of the journal bearing are increased when the eccentricity is small, while decreased when the eccentricity is big.

Nonlinear dynamics of flexible rotor system supported on fixed-tilting pad combination journal bearing

Based on the Reynolds equation with Reynolds boundary conditions, the Castelli method was employed to solve the Reynolds equation for oil lubrication upon bearings. By doing so, a profile of nonlinear oil film force of single-pad journal bearings is established. According to the structure of combination journal bearings, nonlinear oil film force of combination journal bearing is obtained by retrieval, interpolation and assembly techniques. As for symmetrical flexible Jeffcott rotor systems supported by combination journal bearings, the nonlinear motions of the center of the rotor are calculated by the self-adaptive Runge-Kutta method and Poincar6 mapping with different rotational speeds. The numerical results show that the system performance is slightly better when the pivot ratio changes from 0.5 to 0.6, and reveals nonlinear phenomena of periodic, period-doubing, quasi-periodic motion, etc.

Approximate Solution of Oil Film Load-carrying Capacity of Turbulent Journal Bearing with Couple Stress Flow

The instability of the rotor dynamic system supported by oil journal bearing is encountered frequently, such as the half speed whirl of the rotor, which is caused by oil film lubricant with nonlinearity. Currently, more attention is paid to the physical characteristics of oil film due to an oil-lubricated journal bearing being the important supporting component of the bearing-rotor systems and its nonlinear nature. In order to analyze the lubrication characteristics of journal bearings efficiently and save computational c[~brts, an approximate solution of nonlinear oil film forces of a finite length turbulent journal bearing with couple stress flow is proposed based on Sommerfeld and Ocvirk numbers. Reynolds equation in lubrication of a finite length turbulent .journal bearing is solved based on multi-parametric principle. Load-carrying capacity of nonlinear oil film is obtained, and the results obtained by different methods are compared. The validation of the proposed method is verified, meanwhile, the relationships of load-carrying capacity versus eccentricity ratio and width-to-diameter ratio under turbulent and couple stress working conditions are analyzed. The numerical results show that both couple stress flow and eccentricity ratio have obvious influence on oil film pressure distribution, and the proposed method approximates the load-carrying capacity of turbulent journal bearings efficiently with various width-to-diameter ratios. This research proposes an approximate solution of oil film load-carrying capacity of turbulent journal bearings with different width-to-diameter ratios, whicb are suitable for high eccentricity ratios and heavy loads.

Bifurcation and Chaos Analysis of Nonlinear Rotor System with Axial-grooved Gas-lubricated Journal Bearing Support

Axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearings have been widely applied to precision instrument due to their high accuracy, low friction, low noise and high stability. The rotor system with axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearing support is a typical nonlinear dynamic system. The nonlinear analysis measures have to be adopted to analyze the behaviors of the axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearing-rotor nonlinear system as the linear analysis measures fail. The bifurcation and chaos of nonlinear rotor system with three axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearing support are investigated by nonlinear dynamics theory. A time-dependent mathematical model is established to describe the pressure distribution in the axial-grooved compressible gas-lubricated journal bearing. The time-dependent compressible gas-lubricated Reynolds equation is solved by the differential transformation method. The gyroscopic effect of the rotor supported by gas-lubricated journal bearing with three axial grooves is taken into consideration in the model of the system, and the dynamic equation of motion is calculated by the modified Wilson-0-based method. To analyze the unbalanced responses of the rotor system supported by finite length gas-lubricated journal bearings, such as bifurcation and chaos, the bifurcation diagram, the orbit diagram, the Poincar6 map, the time series and the frequency spectrum are employed. The numerical results reveal that the nonlinear gas film forces have a significant influence on the stability of rotor system and there are the rich nonlinear phenomena, such as the periodic, period-doubling, quasi-periodic, period-4 and chaotic motion, and so on. The proposed models and numerical results can provide a theoretical direction to the design of axial-grooved gas-lubricated journal bearing-rotor system.