An Adaptive Squeeze-Film Bearing

This paper examines the effect of controlling the oil supply pressure to squeeze-film bearings in applications where these elements are used to provide damping for a light flexible transmission shaft having an arbitrary unbalance mass distribution. The shaft length and diameter selected for the study are typical of those used for helicopter tail rotor transmissions. A computer simulation is undertaken to study the effect of a squeeze-film damper located at: 1) The end supports. 2) Mid-span with undamped end supports. 3) Mid-span with damped end supports. The simulation shows that in this type of application, good vibration control can be achieved by using a squeeze-film damper which is capable of switching between two levels of damping. The feasibility of attaining such a characteristic is examined experimentally.