MOMENTUM AND ENERGY APPROXIMATIONS FOR ELEMENTARY SQUEEZE-FILM DAMPERFLOWS

To provide understanding of the effects of inertia on squeeze-film dam per performance, two elementary flow patterns are studied. These eleme ntary flows each depend on a single generalized motion coordinate wher eas general planar motions of a damper are described by two independen t generalized coordinates. Momentum and energy approximations for the elementary flows are compared with exact solutions. It is shown that t he energy approximation, not previously applied to squeeze films, is s uperior to the momentum approximation in that at low Reynolds number t he energy approximations agree with the exact solutions to first order in the Reynolds number whereas there are 20 percent errors in the fir st-order terms of the momentum approximations.