Including the Effects of Flexible Bearing Supportsin Rotating Machinery

Abstract

Unbalance response and stability analyses of a flexible rotor on three lobe journal bearings on flexible supports are presented. The influence of the support structure was included in the analyses using polynomial transfer functions. These transfer functions were extracted from measured dynamic compliance data of the support structure, measured at the bearing locations. Numerical predictions using polynomial transfer functions and single mass supports are compared to the experimental data. Predictions using the transfer function representation of the support structure show a clear improvement over the predictions using single mass supports without over‐complicating the problem. The predicted critical speeds are within 2.9% of the measured critical speeds. The predicted stability threshold agrees with the measured stability threshold within 1%. The effects of cross talk between supports and cross coupling between horizontal and vertical directions are investigated. The cross talk between supports was found to have a strong influence in the results while the influence of cross coupling between the vertical and horizontal directions is negligible.