Stability Analysis of a Hydrodynamic Journal Bearing With Rotating Herringbone Grooves

This paper presents an analytical method to investigate the stability of a hydrodynamic journal bearing with rotating herringbone grooves. The dynamic coefficients of the hydrodynamic journal bearing are calculated using the FEM and the perturbation method. The linear equations of motion can be represented as a parametrically excited system because the dynamic coefficients have time-varying components due to the rotating grooves, even in the steady state. Their solution can be assumed as a Fourier series expansion so that the equations of motion can be rewritten as simultaneous algebraic equations with respect to the Fourier coefficients. Then, stability can be determined by solving Hill’s infinite determinant of these algebraic equations. The validity of this research is proved by the comparison of the stability chart with the time response of the whirl radius obtained from the equations of motion. This research shows that the instability of the hydrodynamic journal bearing with rotating herringbone grooves increases with increasing eccentricity and with decreasing groove number, which play the major roles in increasing the average and variation of stiffness coefficients, respectively. It also shows that a high rotational speed is another source of instability by increasing the stiffness coefficients without changing the damping coefficients.