The effect of lubricant inertia on fluid cavitation for high-speed squeeze film dampers

Abstract

This work studies the effect of lubricant inertia on the fluid cavitation for partially sealed high-speed squeeze film dampers (SFDs) executing small amplitude circular-centered orbits (CCOs). The lubricant cavitation is modeled by both the Elrod algorithm and the Gumbel's cavitation boundary condition to provide the comparison between the most common lubricant cavitation models. Additionally, the fluid inertia is integrated by adapting a finite-length SFD model for partially sealed dampers. The integrated SFD model is incorporated into a numerical simulation model and the results are validated by comparison with experimental data. The results of the analysis demonstrate that the fluid inertia effects significantly extend the cavitation region and influence the cavitation onset and the film reformation.

Application of Squeeze Film Dampers

“…In [25], the authors state that it is legitimate to hypothesize that the shape of the purely viscous velocity profiles is not affected by the fluid inertia, at least for moderate values of Reynolds number (Re). Moreover, considering average quantities in the flow equations the wall shear stress differences are approximated, [26].…”

“…In this work, a similar approach as in [26] is adopted. A single Reynolds-like equation is adopted in which the temporal inertia effect is added.…”

Influence of the Impeller/Guide Vane Clearance Ratio on the Performances of a Nuclear Reactor Coolant Pump

“…The supports at the two radial bearings are elastic supports that meet the actual situation. The calculation of bearing stiffness and damping coefficient adopt narrow bearing theory and Gampbell boundary conditions [24,25].…”

Vibration analysis of rotor-bearing system using polynomial interpolation for squeeze film damper models

“…Despite the tremendous effort in solving for the dynamic behavior of different rotor systems, the incorporated SFD models are usually simplified with either SBA or long bearing approximation (LBA), where some nonlinear thin film features such as fluid inertia, cavitation and lubricant leakages are not precisely modeled. Although some advanced SFD models have been developed to detect these nonlinear effects [22][23][24][25][26], challenges in simulating the frequency response of a rotordynamic system lie in efficiently obtaining the reaction forces from complicated SFD models, since the integration of numerical solutions from these models are time-consuming when SFD forces are needed under different eccentricities and speeds.…”