Squeeze Film Damper Bearing With Double-Ended Beam Springs: Part II — Experimental Validation

Abstract

To validate a new squeeze film damper (SFD) bearing design introduced in [1], a pair of 3.5 inch SFD bearings were manufactured and tested. Static spring compression test was conducted to prove the spring design stiffness calculated through the geometry parametric spring model. High cycle loading fatigue testing of the spring was conducted to validate the design spring fatigue limit. The entire SFD bearing assembly was inspected and checked through a SFD centering bench test before the rotor dynamic test. Unbalance response correlation and logarithmic decrement (Log. Dec.) measurement using the operational modal analysis (OMA) method were employed for the rotor-dynamic tests. An agreement was seen between the analysis and the experimental measurement. It was seen that the SFD bearing provided the extra damping as expected to suppress the unbalance vibration when passing through the critical speed and also improve the stability (Log. Dec.) of the rotor. It was found that the measured SFD damping was closer to the full film damping model when the squeeze oil film was sealed with O-rings. The SFD improved the logarithmic decrement of the rotor-bearing system from 0.07 to more than 0.21 as compared to the system without SFD.

Analysis on Multimode Nonlinear Resonance of an Asymmetric Rolling Bearing Rotor with the Application of a Squeeze Film Damper

“…Iacobellis et al [29] designed and built SFD-rotor test rig to study the effect of SFD oil supply pressure, oil temperature, oil inlet feed number/ orientation, unbalance, and seals on the response of a Jeffcott rotor. Li et al [30] manufactured and tested a pair of 3.5 inch SFD bearings to validate a new squeeze film damper bearing design.…”

Parameter Analysis of an Intershaft Dual-Rotor with the Application of Squeeze Film Dampers

“…Iacobellis et al [20] designed and built SFD-rotor test rig to study the effect of SFD oil supply pressure, oil temperature, oil inlet feed number/orientation, unbalance, and seals on the response of a Jeffcott rotor. Li et al [21] manufactured and tested a pair of 3.5-inch SFD bearings to validate a new squeeze film damper bearing design.…”