Abstract
Due to their reliability and low maintenance costs over an extended service time, the journal bearings, also known as fluid-film bearings, are commonly incorporated in the super-critical rotor systems. Together with proven balancing methods, they allow rotating machine to pass smoothly through the various of critical speeds, both during start-ups and shut-downs. However, journal bearings need to be designed very carefully, as at some operating conditions (speed and load), they may introduce the undesired effects, such as unstable operations or sub-harmonic resonances. The standard procedure leading to the optimum fluid-film bearing design is based on the bearing capacity, defined by the Sommerfield number [1][2]. When Sommerfield number is determined, all design parameters, such as viscosity, radial clearance, diameter and rotation speed, etc. are matched to satisfy the engineering requirements specified. The procedure is considered to be completely reliable and is commonly used in turbo-machinery and high-speed compressor design. However, the significant divergences between theory and practice were observed with the increase of a bearing radial clearance [3].
