ROTORDYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF FLEXURE-PIVOT TILTING-PAD JOURNAL BEARINGS

Many of today's modern turbomachines, especially those running at high speeds and high power ratings, require the superior stability characteristics of tilting-pad journal bearings to prevent rotordynamic instabilities. Until now, the design complexity of tilting-pad bearings has Precluded their use in many small, high-volume application where cost and size are important. This paper introduces a new one-piece journal beating design, the flexure-pivot bearing, that offers many of the beneficial rotodynamic advantages of tilting-pad bearings, without the complexities of a multi-piece design. Performance data for a flexure-pivot bearing is shown for an application requiring a highly stable design, illustrating the effectiveness of the flexure-pivot bearing in offering rotordynamic stability approaching that of a tilting-pad bearing.