A radial clearance adjustable bearing reduces the vibration response of the rotor system during acceleration

A radial clearance adjustable bearing is proposed in this study. The structure and working principles of the adjustable bearing are introduced. This adjustable bearing can change the dynamics characteristics of the bearing by adjusting the radial clearance. In this paper, a simple rotor bearing finite element model is used to study the vibration response of the rotor system. When the rotational speed does not reach the critical speed, reducing the radial clearance can effectively reduce the vibration of the rotor, and the vibration suppression effect can reach 67%. when the rotational speed approaches the critical speed, increasing the radial clearance can significantly reduce the resonance amplitude of the rotor, and the vibration suppression effect reaches about 37%. The amplitude response of the system decreases almost equally in the vertical and horizontal directions. In addition, when the rotational speed increases to twice the critical speed, the oil whip occurs under light load condition, and the oil film instability can be suppressed by increasing the radial clearance. The current study has achieved manual adjustment of the bearing's clearance; furture work includes developing an intelligent controller that enables active adjustment of the clearance.