ANALYSIS OF AERODYNAMIC MULTILEAF FOIL JOURNAL BEARINGS

In the present work analysis of a gas lubricated multileaf journal bea ring has been presented. The two-dimensional compressible Reynolds equ ation is solved to establish the pressure field in the clearance space of the bearing. The elastic deformation equation is coupled with the Reynolds equation to get the foil deflections and change in film thick ness. The problem has been formulated using the incremental finite ele ment method, The system of equations has been solved using the Newton Raphson iterative procedure. The static performance parameters such as load carrying capacity, frictional torque, minimum film thickness and dynamic characteristics in terms of stiffness and damping coefficient s have been presented in a non-dimensional form for various design par ameters such as compressibility number, eccentricity ratio, foil stiff ness parameter and L/D (length to diameter ratio of the bearing) ratio s. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.