Research on the nonlinear dynamic characteristics of opposed high-speed gas bearing systems

In recent years, the opposed high-speed gas bearing system has been gradually valued and used in the field of precision machinery, especially for precision instruments and mechanisms requiring high speed, high precision, and high rigidity. Although the bearing capacity is not as good as the oil film bearings, it can provide a working environment where the rotor can generate high speed and low heat without deformation of the shaft, and the gas pressure distribution of clearance in bearing also has better stability. Due to the strong nonlinearity of the gas film pressure function of gas bearings and the fact that the actual shaft system possesses dynamic problems including critical speed, spindle imbalance or improper bearing design, it will cause the rotation process of the shaft to produce a nonperiodic motion and instability, and even chaotic motion under certain parameters. And these irregular movements can even cause machine damage or process delays when serious, so in order to understand the process of working under the conditions where the system will have a nonperiodic phenomenon and to avoid the occurrence of irregular vibration especially chaos. In this paper, the opposed high-speed gas bearing system feature will be discussed in detail with three different numerical analysis methods, i.e. the finite difference method, perturbation method, and mixing method. The relevant theories include dynamic trajectories, spectrum analysis, bifurcation diagram, Poincare map, and the maximum Lyapunov exponents. From the results of nonlinear dynamic behavior of the rotor center, periodic and nonperiodic motions occur at different rotor masses and bearing parameters, respectively. Especially, for the chaos of shaft exists at specific intervals and can be distinguished efficiently. Meanwhile, it is found to ensure that the bearing system can suppress the phenomena of chaos actively by adjusting the bearing parameters, and reduce the system loss caused by irregular vibration. It is expected to be an important basis for designing a precision shaft or mechanism and to enhance the stability and performance of bearing system.