Elasto-Aerodynamic Lubrication Analysis of a Self-Acting Foil Air Journal Bearing

Most of elasto-aerodynamic approaches under dynamic conditions proposed in the technical literature include only the static pressure induced deformation of foils. This paper presents a theoretical investigation on the effects of both static and dynamic deformations of the foils on the dynamic performance characteristics and stability of a self-acting air foil journal bearing operating under small harmonic vibrations. To take into account the dynamic deformations of foils, the perturbation method is used for determining the gas-film stiffness and damping coefficients for given values of excitation frequency, compressibility number, and compliance factor of the bump foil. The nonlinear stationary Reynolds’ equation is solved by means of the Galerkin’s finite element formulation while the finite differences method are used to solve the first order complex dynamic equations resulting from the perturbation of the transient compressible Reynolds’ equation. It was found that the dynamic properties and stability of the compliant finite length journal bearing are significantly affected by the compliance of foils especially when the dynamic deformation of foils is considered in addition to the static one by applying the principle of superposition.