STABILITY OF HIGH STIFFNESS GAS JOURNAL BEARINGS

One of the most important problems in the design of gas bearings is th eir stability. In this paper, results of investigations of the stabili ty of a new type of gas journal bearing, the so-called ''high stiffnes s bearing'' (HSB) are presented. As linear models of HSB do not allow us to estimate the stability threshold with satisfactory precision, al l the numerical experiments carried out have been based on a non-linea r model. To calculate the motion of the bearing elements, an iterative method has been used. During the numerical experiments, regions of st able operation of the bearing have been estimated. The appearance of l imit cycles points to the non-linear character of the high stiffness b earing.