Effects of nonlinear damping suspension on nonperiodic motions of a flexible rotor in journal bearings

Nonlinear damping suspension is a promising method to be used in a rotor-bearing system for vibration isolation between the bearing and environment. However, the nonlinearity of the suspension may influence the stability of the rotor-bearing system. In this paper, the motions of a flexible rotor in short journal bearings with nonlinear damping suspension are studied. A computational method is used to solve the equations of motion, and the bifurcation diagrams, orbits, Poincaré maps, and amplitude spectra are used to display the motions. The results show that the effect of the nonlinear damping suspension on the motions of the rotor-bearing system depends on the speed of rotor: (a) For low speeds, the rotor- bearing system presents the same motion pattern under the nonlinear damping ($$p=0.5, 2, 3$$p=0.5,2,3) suspension as for the linear damping ($$p=1$$p=1) suspension; (b) For high speeds, the effect of nonlinear damping depends on a combination of the damping exponent and damping coefficient. The square root damping model ($$p=0.5$$p=0.5) shows a wider stable speed range than the linear damping for large damping coefficients. The quadratic damping ($$p=2$$p=2) shows similar results to linear damping with some special damping coefficients. The cubic damping ($$p=3$$p=3) shows more stable response than the linear damping in general.