Nonlinear vibration response characteristics of a dual-rotor-bearing system with squeeze film damper

Abstract Rolling bearing and Squeeze Film Damper (SFD) are used in rotor support structures, and most researches on the nonlinear rotor-bearing system are focused on the simple rotor-bearing systems. This work emphasizes the comparative analysis of the influence of SFD on the nonlinear dynamic behavior of the dual-rotor system supported by rolling bearings. Firstly, a reduced dynamic model is established by combining the Finite Element (FE) method and the free-interface method of component mode synthesis. The proposed model is verified by comparing the natural characteristics obtained from an FE model with those from the experiment. Then, the steady-state vibration responses of the system with or without SFD are solved by the numerical integration method. The influences of the ball bearing clearance, unbalance, centralizing spring stiffness and oil film clearance of SFD on the nonlinear steady-state vibration responses of the dual-rotor system are analyzed. Results show that SFD can effectively suppress the amplitude jump of the dual rotor system sustaining two rotors unbalance excitations. As the ball bearing clearance or unbalance increases, the amplitude jump phenomenon becomes more obvious, the resonance hysteresis phenomenon strengthens or weakens, the resonant peaks shift to the left or the right, respectively. SFD with unreasonable parameters will aggravate the system vibration, the smaller the oil film clearance, the better the damping performance of the SFD, the larger the centralizing spring stiffness is, the larger resonance amplitudes are.