On the Computation of Inertial Coefficients in Squeeze-Film Bearings

Abstract

Inertial coefficients for full squeeze-film bearings are evaluated theoretically using Smith's differential equation relating fluid-film pressure to journal acceleration (1). The variations of the non-dimensionalized inertial coefficients with static eccentricity ratio in the radial and transverse directions are compared with some corresponding values obtained from Reinhardt and Lund (2) and Szeri et al. (3). The results from these three methods show good agreement, especially for short bearings (that is bearings with low values of length–diameter ratio). However, Smith's approach has the advantage of computational simplicity and leads to fairly simple, asymptotic, analytical expressions for very short, and very long, bearings.