The Effect of Journal Misalignment on the Oil-Film Forces Generated in a Squeeze Film Damper

Squeeze film damper performance is usually assessed on the assumption that the axis of the journal is parallel to that of the bearing housing. For many practical cases, for example that of the overhung fan shaft in an aero gas turbine, these two elements are unlikely to be parallel, even when self-aligning bearings are used. In this theoretical study an attempt has been made to evaluate the effect of misalignment on the magnitude of the oil-film forces produced in a squeeze film damper bearing, and to this end a computational procedure has been established. From the results reported in this paper, it has been clearly shown that the effect of misalignment in a two-land, squeeze film damper can lead to a significant increase in the transmission of unbalance force through the oil film, As an example, data from a previously reported investigation into the performance of a simple two-bearing model with a single centrally supported disk have been used in a typical calculation. The results from this computation indicated that the oil-film forces generated, could have been several times greater than those calculated on the assumption that the journal and bearing housing were parallel. Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any clear guidelines to lay down to the designers of squeeze film dampers at this moment, in relation to journal misalignment. In general, the effect of misalignment is strongest when the ratio of land-length to radial clearance is greatest, when large unbalance is being accommodated, and when the orbit size is large. In our own analytical studies, the effect of misalignment is allowed for whenever the angle of misalignment is greater than 0.0005 radians.