The effect of damping on the stability of a finite element model of a flexible non-axisymmetric rotor on tilting pad bearings

Abstract A finite element model of a rotor-bearing system with non-axisymmetric stiffness and mass properties was analyzed in a previous study. In this paper the model is extended to include the effects of external damping due to symmetrical tilting-pad bearings. The same instability mechanisms, due to the lack of axisymmetry and shear deflection occurred in the damped case as for the undamped case, but within the normal operating speed of typical industrial rotor systems, a quite high degree of asymmetry is necessary. A ratio of the difference in a diametral second moments of area to mean diametral second moment of area, greater than 0.3 is necessary for instability for the configuration modelled. The instabilities involving antisymmetric modes in the undamped case are not present in the damped case. The first backward mode is involved in the instabilities of most practical interest. The effect of internal damping is also examined for an axisymmetric rotor and the behaviour, involving instability of the first forward mode, compares well with purely analytical methods for simple rotors.