Effect of random forcing on fluid lubricated bearing

Bailey, N.Y.; Hibberd, S.; Tretyakov, M.; Power, H.

Abstract

A model for a fluid lubricated bearing is derived for operation under conditions where external forces are subject to random fluctuations that may act to destabilise the bearing. The fluid flow through the bearing is described by a Reynolds equation for incompressible flow and is coupled to the axial displacement of the bearing faces as modelled by spring-mass-damper systems. Representative dynamics of a highly rotating bearing subject to external potentially destabilising random forcing is developed. An external force characterised by a noise term is imposed on the rotor, where both white noise and coloured noise are considered. For industrial applications it is important to evaluate potential bearing failure that can arise when the face clearance becomes sufficiently small. Therefore, a quantity of interest is the average time for the face clearance to reach a prescribed tolerance. A computational technique to evaluate the bearing characteristics is implemented based on a simple random walk for a Dirichlet problem for a linear parabolic partial differential equation combined with a Monte Carlo technique. Results of numerical experiments are presented, to give indicative predictions of possible face contact, which has the potential to result in bearing failure.

Citation

Bailey, N., Hibberd, S., Tretyakov, M., & Power, H. (2019). Effect of random forcing on fluid lubricated bearing. IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics, 84(3), 632–649. https://doi.org/10.1093/imamat/hxz007

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 26, 2019
• Online Publication Date: May 2, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Apr 1, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 3, 2020
• Journal: IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics
• Print ISSN: 0272-4960
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-3634
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 84
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 632–649
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/imamat/hxz007
• Keywords: Reynolds equation; Fluid lubricated bearing; Random forcing; Random walk; Monte Carlo technique
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1723292
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/imamat/advance-article/doi/10.1093/imamat/hxz007/5482273
• Additional Information: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics following peer review. The version of record Nicola Y Bailey, Stephen Hibberd, Michael V Tretyakov, Henry Power, Effect of random forcing on fluid-lubricated bearing, IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics, , hxz007 is available online at https://academic.oup.com/imamat/advance-article/doi/10.1093/imamat/hxz007/5482273
• Contract Date: Apr 1, 2019