Paper No: 05-IAGT-2.8 INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION OF GAS TURBINES COMMITTEE DYNAMIC PROPERTIES OF TILTING-PAD JOURNAL BEARINGS: ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENT

of the performance of journal bearings. Dr. Dmochowski is the author of more than 90 technical papers and reports on fluid film lubrication and other related topics. Rotors of high speed rotating machinery are usually supported in tilting-pad journal bearings (TPJB). These bearings offer inherent stability resulting from zero cross coupling dynamic coefficients. It has been found that the dynamic properties of TPJBs are frequency dependent. However, in engineering practice, analysis of rotor dynamics is based on the values determined for the frequency which corresponds to the shaft speed (synchronously reduced dynamic coefficients). These properties can be different at the system’s natural frequency, or at frequencies of other excitations in the system. The paper analyzes the results of bearing stiffness and damping from experimental and theoretical investigations. It has been found that the variations of tilting-pad bearings stiffness and damping properties with frequency of excitation depend on the bearing operating conditions