Dynamic characteristics of elastic ring squeeze film damper coupled high-speed ball bearings

This paper explores an elastic ring squeeze film damper (ERSFD) model incorporating high-speed ball bearings to study the journal dynamics at different rotor operating speeds and squirrel cage stiffness. Firstly, dynamic model of the ERSFD is established. The journal works under ball-outer raceway excitation rather than rotor unbalance force. Bearing high-speed characteristics including ball centrifugal force, contact angle change and heavy thrust-applied load are outlined in quasi-static model when deriving bearing force. Oil film pressure is governed by the Reynolds equation and solved iteratively using the central finite difference scheme. Flow performance through the orifice and its effect on the oil film pressure are analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. Elastic ring deformation is addressed using a thin-walled ring model. Secondly, squirrel cage stiffness and rotor operating speeds were chosen as influence parameters to numerically examine the journal steady-state and transient dynamics, and finally the center orbit and vibration of the journal were experimentally measured. The results demonstrate that an increase in squirrel cage stiffness enables the journal to orbit at small size but leads to higher transmissibility. Small squirrel cage stiffness and rotor operating speed result in high amplitude and velocity oscillations and destabilize the journal; alternatively, higher squirrel cage stiffness is ineffective in transmissibility attenuation regardless of rotor operating speed. It was concluded that a small squirrel cage stiffness cooperating with high rotor operating speed contributes to stabilize journal and attenuate vibration effectively.