Theoretical and Experimental Studies on Squeeze Film Stabilizers for Flexible Rotor-Bearing Systems Using Newtonian and Viscoelastic Lubricants

A combination of a squeeze film damper and a plane journal bearing is studied as a stabilizing scheme. The damper is made to play the role of a stabilizer to postpone the instability threshold speeds of flexible rotors. Both Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids are used in the rotor-bearing system. Dynamics of the system is theoretically analyzed using bond graphs. Analysis reveals that the use of a Newtonian fluid in the stabilizer largely improves the high speed stability range. However, viscoelastic stabilizing fluid has a detrimental effect on highly flexible rotors. Experimental investigations, conducted on a flexible rotor (natural frequency, 30 Hz), confirm the theoretical findings. In addition, experiments indicate that though the use of viscoelastic stabilizing fluids leads to instability in flexible rotors, the growth of large amplitude whirl is postponed to very high speeds.