Flexible Bearing Supports, Using Experimental Data

Abstract

A laboratory rotor, representing a scaled-down model of a three-stage compressor supported by fluid film bearings on anisotropic flexible supports was analyzed. The support characteristics were measured at the bearing locations by exciting the bearing housings with electromechanical shakers and measuring the acceleration. Direct, cross-coupled, and cross-talk accelerance between supports were measured. Unbalance response and stability analyses of the rotor were performed using polynomial transfer functions extracted from the measured accelarance data. The predicted critical speeds and instability threshold agree with measured data. Predictions using other support models are included to show the effectiveness of this method.