A pad perturbation method for the dynamic coefficients of tilting-pad journal bearings

A pad assembly method for analyzing tilting-pad bearings is presented. The method results in the complete coefficient matrix for a tilting-pad bearing; the matrix is independent of the pad inertia, the pitch frequency and the number of degrees of freedom of the pad. A pad assembly method is used because it allows the collection of more bearing data with less computer time than a brute force iterative procedure. The results given show the complete dynamical matrices for a five-pad tilting-pad bearing both including and ignoring the damping effects of the unloaded (top) pads. For a symmetrical tilting-pad bearing the reduced cross-coupling coefficients are zero when the moment of inertia of the pad is ignored.