Stability of Squeeze Film Damped Multi-Mass Flexible Rotor Bearing Systems

A technique is presented for investigating the stability of and the degree of damping in the circular synchronous orbit equilibrium solutions pertaining to radially symmetric multi-mass flexible rotor bearing systems. It involves the analysis of appropriate linearized perturbation equations about the equilibrium solutions and is applicable to systems with several squeeze film dampers. For a system with a single damper, stability threshold maps, independent of unbalance distribution, may be found in terms of the same damper parameters and operating conditions as the equilibrium solutions, thereby allowing for damper design and performance monitoring. The technique is illustrated for a simple symmetric four degree of freedom flexible rotor with an unpressurized damper. This example shows the utility of zero frequency stability maps for delineating multiple solution possibilities and that for low (in this case of the order of 0.06 or lower) bearing parameters, the introduction of an unpressurized squeeze film damper may promote instability in an otherwise stable system.