The Experimental Modal Analysis of Water-Lubricated Rubber Stern Bearing

Abstract

With the widespread use of the water lubricated rubber stern bearing, researches around rubber bearings are becoming hot points in recent years and researches on dynamic characteristic are particularly important. The dynamic characteristics of vibration system depend mainly on its modality parameters. This paper presented experimental modal analysis of water-lubricated rubber stern bearing by hammering method, and by comparing the differences with the finite element simulating result, analyzed the rubber bearing based on linear modal analysis theory. Due to the nonlinearity of rubber material, although the natural frequency range of rubber layer could be gotten, it’s hard to get the precise modal shapes of it, yet the metal layer could get more precise results.