Dynamic Performances of Foil Bearing Supporting a Jeffcot Flexible Rotor System Using FEM

Abstract

Aerodynamic bearings have received considerable attention in recent decades and are increasingly being used in applications where high speed, low loads and high precision are required. Aerodynamic applications mainly concern auxiliary power units (APU) and air-conditioning machines (ACM). From the industrial point of view, the static and dynamic characteristics of these bearings rotating at very high speed must be determined. According to the literature, studies carried out on this type of bearing consider the elastic deformations of the foils due to the pressure generated in the air film. The linear approach is from time to time adopted for the prediction of the dynamic behavior of these bearings, which is not always justified. This paper aims to present a step towards a better mastery of the non-linear dynamic behavior of a flexible rotor-air bearing system. We will focus on finite element modeling (FEM) of the non-linear isothermal elasto-aerodynamic lubrication problem in the case of a radial bearing operating in a dynamic regime. We will present the effects of rotational speed, unbalance eccentricity, and rotor mass on the non-linear response of rigid and compliant bearings. We use a partitioned approach which treats fluid and structure as two computation domains solved separately; reducing the development time needed for a monolithic code which is difficult to manage when the geometries or the physical properties of the problem to be treated become complex.