The role of lubricant feeding conditions on the performance improvement and friction reduction of journal bearings

Most conventional hydrodynamic journal bearing performance tools can not suitably assess the effect of lubricant feeding conditions on bearing performance, even though these conditions are known to affect important performance parameters such as eccentricity and powerloss. A thermohydrodynamic analysis suitable to deal with realistic feeding conditions has been proposed. Special attention was given to the treatment of phenomena taking place within grooves and their vicinity,as well as to the ruptured film region. The effec to flubricant feeding pressure and temperature, groove length ratio,width ratio and number (single/twin) on bearing performance has been analyzed for a broad range of conditions.It was found that a careful tuning of the feeding conditions may indeed improve bearing performance.FCT - POCTI/EME/39202/200

Weakly nonlinear systems: Modeling and experimental methods

The prior chapter presented rigorous theory and methods for nonlinear systems, which is necessary in general because many nonlinear systems exhibit strong modal coupling due to the nonlinearity; this is commonly the case for the geometrically nonlinear structures that were the focus of that chapter. However, one of the most common sources of nonlinearity in built-up structures is the joints, and in many cases, these introduce only a weak stiffness nonlinearity together with a significant damping nonlinearity. In this case, and in many others that are relevant to industry, one can obtain good estimates of the response of the structure using a weakly nonlinear model in which the linear modes of the structure are presumed to be preserved and coupling between modes is neglected. This chapter provides a brief introduction to these concepts.—Chapter Authors: Randall Mayes and Matt Allen

Development of a test planning methodology for performing experimental model validation of bolted flanges

This work presents a strategy for testing and validating structures connected together with bolted joints, which are the most common components in mechanical structures. Considering the great number of coupled mechanical structures and research studies on this subject, the authors focused this research work on bolted flanges of aircraft engine casings. In fact, the coupling of engine casings is generally obtained by a large number of joints which assure the correct sealing at the flanges’ interfaces. From a finite element (FE) modelling perspective, joints are often modelled by either rigid connections or springs, otherwise incurring a very expensive computational time. This modelling approach is not a problem when dealing with low amplitude levels of vibrations. For higher levels of vibrations, joints and flanges cannot be considered rigidly connected and that exerted flexibility at the joints’ area can determine nonlinear dynamic behaviour. This work aims to study the dynamic behaviour of bolted flanges by using modal testing performed under controlled response amplitude. Two test structures, (1) a simple bolted flange test case and (2) a sector of a Rolls-Royce aero-engine casing, are tested under high level of vibrations. Both test structures are modelled by FE method, and nonlinear elements are used for modelling the flanges’ interfaces so as to perform prediction of nonlinear responses. These predictions are eventually correlated with the measured data.</p