Dynamically Loaded Pivoted Pad Journal Bearings: Mobility Method of Solution

Abstract

The mobility-whirl angle method as introduced by Booker in 1964, has been applied to pivoted pad journal bearings to predict the behavior of a rotor supported in this type of bearing. Both the single pivoted pad and the complete radial bearing with three equally spaced radial pads have been analyzed. It will be shown that the method is restricted to the case where the value of the load on each pad has to be known from the start. Some experiments have been carried out on a squeeze apparatus. The results are in reasonable agreement with numerical results.