Analysis of the nonlinear dynamic response of a rotor supported on ball bearings with floating-ring squeeze film dampers

A dynamic model of a rotor supported on ball bearings with floating-ring squeeze film dampers (FSFD) is established. In the model, the coupling effect between rotor, ball bearing and FSFD is considered. An efficient numerical integration approach has been employed to conduct the investigation into the rotor system. The results show that FSFD can effectively prevent bistable response, and the performance has also been demonstrated by experiments. Furthermore, the numerical results show that the speed range of non-synchronous motion response of rotor system increases as supporting stiffness increases. When floating-ring mass is less than the lumped mass at the journal position, the speed range of non-synchronous motion decreases as floating-ring mass increases.

► A dynamic model including floating-ring squeeze film dampers (FSFD) is proposed.
► The performance of FSFD in preventing bistable response is numerically validated.
► The performance in preventing bistable response is also validated by experiments.
► Increasing supporting stiffness will increase non-synchronous response range.
► Increasing floating-ring mass will decrease non-synchronous response range.