The Effect of Squeeze Film Damper Parameters on the Unbalance Response and Stability of a Flexible Rotor

There has been much research work carried out on various aspects of individual squeeze-film dampers (SFDs) but very little on the interplay between a damper and the rotating assembly of which it forms a part. In this paper, a flexible rotor-bearing assembly in a configuration, typical of a small centrifugal pump and incorporating an SFD, is investigated theoretically and experimentally from the points of view of forced vibration control and stability control. It is found that change in rotor unbalance, SFD static eccentricity ratio, and SFD supply pressure can cause significant movement of system resonances and vibration resulting from excessive damping. The provision of an SFD also delays the onset of instability and because of its nonlinearity, the SFD contributes more damping than can a linear damper when the vibration amplitude becomes large as instability develops. It is shown that this instability is curbed at some limit cycle, whose frequency is a system natural frequency.