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An accurate model of a foil bearing supported rotor needs to cover rotor dynamics of the shaft, structure dynamics of the foil as well as hydro‐ and thermo dynamics in the fluid film. The paper addresses the incorporation of tilting motions of the shaft and its influence on the foil deflection, which in turn results in a more accurate prediction of the stability threshold of the rotor‐bearing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a well‐known fact, that hydrodynamically supported systems are prone to nonlinear vibrations. Their exact simulative prediction with respect to frequency and amplitude is complicated by the fact that different system properties interact. The paper at hand outlines an approach that takes all relevant influences like rigid body motions, elastic deformations, nonlinear relation between fluid film pressure and bearing kinematics as well as temperature increase due to power loss or adjacent heat sources into account as detailed as necessary. Both journal and thrust bearings are considered as they contribute to the system's stiffness and damping capabilities. The approach is applied to self‐excited pad vibrations of tilting pad thrust bearings as well as the run‐up simulation of a turbocharger rotor under different axial loads. Both models are validated against measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The force response of squeeze film dampers and hydrodynamic bearings is significantly influenced by the occurence of cavitation inside the lubricant films. The viscosity of the occuring mixture of oil and air bubbles is vastly different than that of pure lubricant and therefore changes the pressure build‐up and thereby the stiffness and damping properties of the lubrication films. To accurately predict the force response of a squeeze film damper, the cavitation and its effect on the pressure build‐up therefore has to be taken into account. Well known cavitation algorithms for lubrication problems, like the Elrod algorithm or the two‐phase‐model, neglect the transient nature of outgassing and assume instantaneous bubble formation and collapse. In the presented paper, a transient bubble dynamics model based on the Rayleigh‐Plesset‐Scriven equation is utilised instead and its effect on the rotordynamic behaviour of a turbocharger rotor is examined based on fully transient multi body dynamics simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Squeeze film dampers (SFDs) are commonly used in turbomachinery in order to introduce external damping, thereby reducing rotor vibrations and acoustic emissions. Since SFDs are of similar geometry as hydrodynamic bearings, the REYNOLDS equation of lubrication can be utilised to predict their dynamic behaviour. However, under certain operating conditions, SFDs can experience significant fluid inertia effects, which are neglected in the usual REYNOLDS analysis. An algorithm for the prediction of these effects on the pressure build up inside a finite-length SFD is therefore presented. For this purpose, the REYNOLDS equation is extended with a first-order perturbation in the fluid velocities to account for the local and convective inertia terms of the NAVIER-STOKES equations. Cavitation is taken into account by means of a mass conserving two-phase model. The resulting equation is then discretized using the finite volume method and solved with an LU factorization. The developed algorithm is capable of calculating the pressure field, and thereby the damping force, inside an SFD for arbitrary operating points in a time-efficient manner. It is therefore suited for integration into transient simulations of turbo machinery without the need for bearing force coefficient maps, which are usually restricted to circular centralized orbits. The capabilities of the method are demonstrated on a transient run-up simulation of a turbocharger rotor with two semi-floating bearings. It can be shown that the consideration of fluid inertia effects introduces a significant shift of the pressure field inside the SFDs, and therefore the resulting damper force vector, at high oil temperatures and high rotational speeds. The effect of fluid inertia on the kinematic behaviour of the whole system on the other hand is rather limited for the examined rotor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite many advantages, hydrodynamic bearings tend to induce nonlinear vibrations on rotor systems at low external loads. The occurrence and also the amplitudes of these vibrations are very sensible to the operating conditions of the system such as occurrence of gaseous cavitation, oil viscosity (strongly dependent on oil temperature), bearing clearance (dependent on metal temperature and thermal expansion coefficients) or rotor imbalance. This contribution shows the calculation of nonlinear rotor oscillations with the help of a detailed transient 3D‐thermo‐hydrodynamic bearing model. Referring to experimental data of a real exhaust turbocharger with semi‐floating ring bearings, this holistic approach is used for a separate investigation of a) the influences of the temperature‐dependent oil viscosity in the lubricating films and b) the influences of temperature‐related changes in the lubricating gap on the nonlinear oscillations of the rotor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vibration behaviour of turbocharger rotors is influenced by the acting loads as well as by the type and arrangement of the hydrodynamic bearings and their operating condition. Due to the highly non-linear bearing behaviour, lubricant film-induced excitations can occur, which lead to sub-synchronous rotor vibrations. A significant impact on the oscillation behaviour is attributed to the pressure distribution in the hydrodynamic bearings, which is influenced by the thermo-hydrodynamic conditions and the occurrence of outgassing processes. This contribution investigates the vibration behaviour of a floating ring supported turbocharger rotor. For detailed modelling of the bearings, the Reynolds equation with mass-conserving cavitation, the three-dimensional energy equation and the heat conduction equation are solved. To examine the impact of outgassing processes and thrust bearing on the occurrence of sub-synchronous rotor vibrations separately, a variation of the bearing model is made. This includes run-up simulations considering or neglecting thrust bearings and two-phase flow in the lubrication gap. It is shown that, for a reliable prediction of sub-synchronous vibrations, both the modelling of outgassing processes in hydrodynamic bearings and the consideration of thrust bearing are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the use of combustion engines will decrease in passenger cars due to ecological reasons, turbochargers (TC) as typical applications with floating ring bearings will furthermore be applied in other applications like combined heat and power plants, ships or emergency backup generators for data processing service center and similar systems. Thus, the development of TC concerning rotor‐ and hydrodynamics is an important task, which leads due to the non‐linear behaviour to the necessity of advanced simulations for improving the performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]