Effect of dynamic properties of support O-rings on stability of herringbone-grooved aerodynamic journal bearings

Abstract

This paper discusses the stability of herringbone-grooved aerodynamic journal bearings supported by rubber O-rings. In this research, the dynamic stiffness and the damping properties of the O-rings are identified in a variety of operating and design conditions. The identification results are fitted with the empirical formulae previously proposed, and the distributions of the dynamic properties in a variety of support conditions are obtained. It is theoretically investigated how the stability of the bearing system changes with the dynamic properties. The bearing tests are also performed to verify the analytical results with the empirical formulae. The empirical formulae used here was reasonable for simulating the dynamic properties of the O-rings in a variety of bearing support conditions. The comparisons between the analysis and experiments verified the effectively of analyzing the stability of the bearing system by using the empirical formulae.