Squeeze film dampers (SFDs) in aircraft engines effectively aid to reduce rotor motion amplitudes, in particular when traversing a critical speed, and help to alleviate rotor whirl instabilities. The current work is a long-term endeavor focused on quantifying the dynamic force performance of practical SFDs, exploring novel design damper configurations, and producing physically sound predictive SFD models validated by experimental data. Piston rings (PRs) and O-rings (ORs), commonly used as end seals in SFDs for commercial and military gas turbine engines, respectively, amplify viscous damping in a short physical length and while operating with a modicum of lubricant flow. This paper presents experimental force coefficients (damping and inertia) for two identical geometry SFDs with end seals, one configuration hosts PRs, and the other one ORs. The test rig comprises a stationary journal and bearing cartridge (BC) hosting the SFD and supported on four elastic rods to emulate a squirrel cage. The damper film land length, diameter, and clearance are L = 25.4 mm, D = 5L, and c = 0.373 mm (D/c = 340), respectively. A supply feeds ISO VG 2 oil to the film land at its middle plane through either one hole or three holes, 2.5 mm in diameter, 120 deg apart. In the PRSFD, the lubricant exits through the slit opening at the ring butted ends. The ORs suppress oil leakage; hence, lubricant evacuates through a 1 mm hole at ¼ L near one journal end. The ORs when installed add significant stiffness and damping to the test structure. The ORSFD produces 20% more damping than the PRSFD, whereas both sealed ends SFDs show similar size added mass. For oil supplied at 0.69 bar(g) through a single orifice produces larger damping, 60–80% more than when the damper operates with three oil feedholes. A computational model reproducing the test conditions delivers force coefficients in agreement with the test data. Archival literature calls for measurement of a single pressure signal to estimate SFD reaction forces. For circular centered orbits (CCOs), the dynamic pressure field, in the absence of any geometrical asymmetry or feed/discharge oil condition, “rotates” around the bearing with a speed equal to the whirl frequency. The paper presents force coefficients estimated from (a) measurements of the applied forces and ensuing displacements, and (b) the dynamic pressure recorded at a fixed angular location and “integrated” over the journal surface. The first method delivers a damping coefficient that is large even with lubricant supplied at a low oil supply pressure whereas the inertia coefficient increases steadily with feed pressure. Predictions show good agreement with the test results from measured forces and displacements, in particular the added mass. On the other hand, identified damping and inertia coefficients from dynamic pressures show a marked difference from one pressure sensor to another, and vastly disagreeing with test results from the first method or predictions. The rationale for the discrepancy relies on local distortions in the dynamic pressure fields that show zones of oil vapor cavitation at a near zero absolute pressure and/or with air ingestion producing high frequency spikes from bubble collapsing; both phenomena depend on the magnitude of the oil supply pressure. An increase in lubricant supply pressure suppresses both oil vapor cavitation and air ingestion, which produces an increase of both damping and inertia force coefficients. No prior art compares the performance of a PRSFD vis-à-vis that of an ORSFD. Supplying lubricant with a large enough pressure (flow rate) is crucial to avoid the pervasiveness of air ingestion. Last, the discussion on force coefficients obtained from two distinct methods questions the use of an oversimplifying assumption; the dynamic pressure field is not invariant in a rotating coordinate frame.

An integral squeeze film damper (ISFD) offers the advantages of a lower number of parts, a shorter axial span, a lighter weight, a split manufacturing, and high precision on its film clearance construction. An ISFD does not only add damping to reduce shaft vibration amplitudes and to enhance the stability of a rotor-bearing system but also can be used to tune a rotor-bearing system natural frequency, and thus increasing the operational safety margin between the running shaft speed and the system critical speed. In spite of the numerous commercial applications, the archival literature is scant as per the experimental quantification of force coefficients for ISFDs. This paper details the results of an experimental and analytical endeavor to quantify and to predict the dynamic force coefficients of an ISFD, hence bridging the gap between theory and practice. With an axial length of 76 mm, the test damper element has four arcuate film lands, 73 deg in arc extent at a diameter of 157 mm, and each with a clearance (c) equaling to 0.353 mm. As is customary, the damper has its axial ends sealed with end plates produced by a set of installed shims giving an axial gap (d) equal to 1.5c, 1.21c, and 0.8c. A baseline configuration, namely, open ends, is also tested without the end seals in place. In the test rig, the ISFD and its housing are flexibly mounted while the rotor is rigid and stationary (no spinning). The lubricant is an ISO VG46 oil supplied at a low pressure, 1 to 2 bar(g) and ∼47 °C inlet temperature, typical of compressor applications. The test procedure applies static loads on the ISFD and records the bearing static offset or eccentricity to verify the structure stiffness, and meanwhile, individual hydraulic shakers deliver dynamic loads along two orthogonal directions to produce motions over a set frequency range, 10 Hz to 160 Hz. The ISFD produces direct damping and inertia that increase with the journal static eccentricity albeit at a lower rate than predictions from a computational squeeze film flow model that includes lubricant compressibility. The end seals are effective in significantly raising the damping coefficient while reducing the oil through flow rate. The damper with the tightest sealed ends (d = 0.8c) shows nearly 20 times more damping that the open ends ISFD albeit also revealing a significant stiffness hardening (negative virtual mass) as the excitation frequency increases. On the contrary, the open ends ISFD and the sealed-ends configurations with gaps d = 1.21c and 1.5c produce a (positive) virtual mass that exceeds the test element physical mass and thus softens the test element direct dynamic stiffness. For the configurations with loose end seals (d = 1.21c or larger to open ends), the model predicts well the damping coefficients but under predicts the added masses by 50% or more. Note this virtual mass coefficient, largely ignored in practice, can make the test element either extremely stiff as with the sealed damper configuration with the smallest gap d = 0.8c, or very soft as with the ISFD with end seals gap = 1.21c or 1.5c. Hence, designers are cautioned not to pursue overly tight end sealed dampers as the mineral lubricant, nearly incompressible though always having a small amount of entrapped gas, may behave distinctly when confined to a squeezed film volume and having no adequate routes to escape or flow through.

Practice and experiments with squeeze film dampers (SFDs) sealed with piston rings (PRs) show the lubricant exits through the PR slit, i.e., the gap made by the PR abutted ends when installed, forced as a jet during the portion of a rotor whirl cycle generating a positive squeeze film pressure. In the other portion of a whirl cycle, a subambient dynamic pressure ingests air into the film that mixes with the lubricant to produce a bubbly mixture. To reduce persistent air ingestion, commercial air breathing engines utilizing PRSFDs demand of a sufficiently large lubricant supply pressure (Ps), and hence a larger flow rate that is proportional to the journal squeeze velocity (vs = amplitude r × frequency of motion ω). The stringent requirement clearly limits the applicability and usefulness of SFDs. This paper presents a computational physics model for a sealed-end SFD operating with a mixture and delivers predictions benchmarked against profuse laboratory test data. The model implements a Reynolds equation adapted for a homogeneous bubbly mixture, includes temporal fluid inertia effects, and uses physics-based inlet and outlet lubricant conditions through feed holes and PR slit, respectively. In the experiments for model validation, a SFD damper, 127 mm in diameter D, film land length L = 25.4 mm (L/D = 0.2), and radial clearance c = 0.371 mm, is supplied with an air in ISO VG2 oil bubbly mixture of known gas volume fraction (GVF), zero (pure oil) to 50% in steps of 10%. The mixture supply pressure varies from Ps = 2.06 bar-g (30 psig) to 6.20 bar-g (90 psig). Located in grooves at the top and bottom of the journal, a PR and an O-ring (OR) seal the film land. The OR does not allow any oil leakage or air ingestion; hence, the supplied mixture discharges through the PR slit into a vessel submerged within a large volume of lubricant. Dynamic load tests with a single frequency ω, varying from 10 Hz to 60 Hz, produce circular centered orbits (CCO) with amplitude r = 0.2c. The measurements record the exerted forces and journal motions and an analysis delivers force coefficients, damping and inertia, representative of the exerted frequency range. The model predicts the pressure field and evolution of the GVF within the film land and, in a simulated process replicating the experimental procedure, delivers representative force coefficients. For all Ps conditions, both predictions and tests show the SFD added mass coefficients significantly decrease as the inlet GVF (βs) increases. The experimentally derived damping coefficients do not show a significant change, except for tests with the largest concentration of air (βs = 0.5). The predicted damping differs by 10% with the test derived coefficient which does not readily decrease as the inlet GVF (βs) increases. The added mass coefficients, test and predicted, decrease with βs, both being impervious to the magnitude of supply pressure. The test PRSFD shows a quadrature stiffness due to the sliding friction between the PR being pushed against the journal. An increase in supply pressure exacerbates this unique stiffness that may impair the action of the squeeze film to dissipate mechanical energy. The comprehensive test results, first of their kind, demonstrate that accurate modeling of SFDs operating with air ingestion remains difficult as the flow process and the paths of its major components (air and liquid) are rather complex.

Rotor-bearing systems often rely on squeeze film dampers (SFDs) to increase the dynamic stability and reduce rotor motion amplitudes while traversing critical speeds. In aircraft engines, to increase the damping capacity within a limited physical space, piston rings (PRs) seal the axial ends of a squeeze film land. However, lubricant still leaks through the slit in the PR abutted ends, and air enters into the film to make a bubbly oil mixture with a much reduced damping capability. This paper presents a volume of fluid (VOF) model for a PR sealed ends SFD facing ambient air (not submerged in lubricant and prone to air entrainment) and delivers predictions benchmarked against experimental results obtained in a dedicated test rig. A lubricant feeds pressure and flows large enough to prevent air ingestion vary with the damper geometry, the lubricant inlet and outlet conditions, and the kinematics of the journal. A parametric study for a typical SFD shows the period-averaged gas volume fraction (GVF) increases as the journal squeeze film velocity (vs) increases and as the film clearance decreases. Most importantly, the location of the PR slit relative to the feedhole affects the amount of air drawn into the film. When the PR slit faces a feedhole, the film land is mostly filled with a pure lubricant. The GVF increases as the arc distance from the PR slit to the feedhole increases. The physical model, anchored by the test data, effectively addresses a fundamental challenge in SFD design and operation; namely, quantifying the amount of air ingested and its effect on the damper forced performance.

An integral squeeze film damper (ISFD) offers the advantages of lower number of parts, a shorter axial span, a lighter weight, a split manufacturing and high precision on its film clearance construction. An ISFD does not only add damping to reduce shaft vibration amplitudes and to enhance the stability of a rotor-bearing system but also can be used to tune a rotor-bearing system