Instability Boundary for

Rotor-Hydrodynamic Bearing
Zenglin Guo
Post-Doctorate
R. Gordon Kirk
Professor
e-mail: gokirk@vt.edu
Mechanical Engineering Department,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University,
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Systems, Part 1: Jeffcott Rotor
With External Damping
The instability of rotor-hydrodynamic bearing systems has been a major concern in high-
speed rotating machine design. The threshold speed is usually considered to be a barrier
that cannot be driven through. However, if some kind of external damping is introduced,
the situation may be different. The study is first conducted on the Jeffcott rotor with
external damping for both vertical and horizontal configurations. For the vertical system,
it has been shown by both analytical and numerical study that there is a threshold speed
at which the rotor will get into an upper stable region from the previous unstable region.
For the horizontal system, an extended Lund Stability Method is presented which proves
that the system may have two threshold speeds. This results in a stability pattern which
has one region of instability sandwiched between two regions of stability. Then, the study
is expanded to the extended Jeffcott rotor. With the introduction of equivalent journal
mass, another threshold speed appears which forms a top and final boundary to the stable
operation of the rotor. The results of a numerical study show that with the external
damping increased, the first several unstable regions can be reduced or eradicated. The
external damping has little effect on the last top threshold which is mainly dependent on
the value of journal mass. It has also been shown that a certain value of external damping
and small journal mass would be very beneficial to improve the stability characteristics of
the system over the entire speed range. 关DOI: 10.1115/1.1547466兴

1 Introduction bearing. In order to solve the problem, various efforts have been
expended on other alternative solutions such as parameter design
The instability of rotor-hydrodynamic bearing systems has been
of the system or selection of various new or different bearing
a major concern in high-speed rotating machine design. In his
designs.
early research work, Rankine 关1兴 stated that the stable operation of
Are there any possibilities that the rotor system can transgress
the rotor above the shaft first critical speed would be impossible,
the threshold speed? Can the rotor system operate above the
which convinced all engineering circles for more than half a cen-
threshold speed? This is the original intention and focus of this
tury that a rotating machine operated above the first critical speed
research work. In his early research, Kirk 关9兴 noticed there might
could not be manufactured. It was Jeffcott 关2兴 who first evaluated
be the multiple stability regions in flexible rotors with external
the response of a rotor system to show the possibility of stable
flexible damped support. Elrod and Vijayaraghavan 关10,11兴 did a
operation below, at and above the critical speed. However, the
linearized stability analysis for liquid-lubricated bearings, which
later research work by Newkirk 关3兴 presented a new self-induced
included the flow within the cavitated region. In their research
threshold speed due to oil film bearings. Since then, the problems
work, an interesting phenomenon was found that for some value
related with predicting the stability of a rotor system have gradu-
of ambient pressure 共only one兲 at an eccentricity of 0.65 it is
ally become the most important subject in the field of rotor-
possible for their rigid support rotor to proceed with increasing
bearing dynamics. Hagg 关4兴 considered the continuity condition of
mass from stability at low mass values, to instability, back to
lubricant flow for a whirling journal and found that the upper limit
stability, and then to persistent instability at high masses. Crandall
of the whirling frequency is one-half the rotating speed. Poritsky
关12,13兴 calculated the stability of a Jeffcott rotor supported in
关5兴 explained that the rotor becomes unstable at twice the critical
cylindrical fluid film bearings which incorporated the effect of
speed. Pinkus 关6兴 showed that there does not exist any simple
rotor damping. He applied a velocity linearization approach to
criterion which separates the regions or conditions of rotor stabil-
obtain both the global locus of the Hopf bifurcations where the
ity. Lund and Sternlicht 关7兴 analyzed the dynamics of a symmetric
equilibrium configuration loses its stability and global locus of the
rotor supported in two cylindrical journal bearings. Gunter 关8兴
saddle nodes of the periodic orbits that mark the boundary of the
examined the single mass unbalanced symmetric rotor and ana-
region in which stable limit cycles exist. A speed-load figure for
lyzed the effect of support flexibility and damping on stability.
stability borderlines was given in 关13兴. It can be seen from that
Kirk 关9兴 conducted the nonlinear transient analysis of a flexible
figure for each rotating speed of the rotor there are two corre-
rotor including the influence of an external flexible damped sup-
sponding thresholds respectively representing the loss of stability
port.
of either equilibrium configuration or limit cycle. This result can
It was once commonly thought that a rotor system supported in
also be viewed in an alternative way in order to compare with the
fixed geometry hydrodynamic bearings would be unable to pass
present work, i.e., for a fixed load the rotor would proceed from
through the unstable region. This has hindered the further devel-
the stability region at low speed, to instability, and then back to
opment of high-speed flexible-shaft machinery that use this type
stability at high speed. Also from that figure for large values of
Contributed by the Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound for publication
load there is even no borderline that means the rotor is always
in the Jørgen Lund Special Issue of the JOURNAL OF VIBRATION AND ACOUSTICS. stable within the entire speed range. Horattas et al. 关14兴 showed
Manuscript received Oct. 2002. Associate Editor: G. T. Flowers. from their test rig data that multiple Hopf bifurcation points

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 Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of rotor system with external damping

共instability threshold speed兲 and multiple hysteresis loops can ex- For a short bearing in the vertically-assembled rotor system, if
ist in rotating machinery. Guo 关15兴 also found in his studies of the concentric situation is considered 共eccentricity ratio of bearing
rotor vibration optimum design, that multiple stability regions is zero兲, the coefficients of stiffness and damping of oil film can

冎
might be possible under some circumstances. To better understand be expressed as
these fundamental phenomena, it is beneficial to conduct a further
theoretical study. k xx ⫽k y y ⫽0
As it once did in helping a rotor to transgress the resonant ⫺k xy ⫽k yx ⫽k b ⬎0
(2)
region in vibration analysis, it is also found in the present work c xx ⫽c y y ⫽c b ⬎0
that the damping, especially the external damping, plays an im- c xy ⫽c yx ⫽0
portant role in stability analysis of the rotor system. In this paper,
Express the displacements in complex form as follows

冎
a rotor-hydrodynamic bearing system with external damping will
be discussed in detail. Z d ⫽x d ⫹iy d
Under normal conditions, due to the nonisotropic features of
Z r ⫹ ␰ ⫹i ␩ (3)
hydrodynamic bearing, the characteristic equation for even the
simplest rotor system, such as Jeffcott single mass flexible rotor Z⫽x⫹iy
system supported on hydrodynamic bearings, will have a sixth Hence, the vertical system equations of motion can be ex-
order characteristic equation. In addition, the dynamic stiffness pressed in complex form as follows

冎
and damping coefficients of the bearings are a function of rotor
speed. Therefore it is commonly thought that it is impracticable to m 共 Z̈ r ⫹Z̈ 兲 ⫹c 共 Ż r ⫹Ż 兲 ⫹kZ r ⫽0
solve the characteristic equation of the rotor-hydrodynamic bear- (4)
kZ r ⫽ik b Z⫹c b Ż
ing system and calculate its threshold speed of instability as well
as whirling frequency by analytical methods. However, if consid- 2.2 Threshold Speed for Vertical System. Assuming

冎
ering the special case of a vertical rotor supported in identical
short journal bearings where the journal rotates above the center Z r ⫽Z ro e ␭t
(5)
of bearing housing, the system equations of motion may be de- Z⫽Z o e ␭t
scribed in complex form. Under this assumption, the whirling or-
and adopting the condition of non-trivial solution for Z ro and Z o
bit of the journal will be circular. The system characteristic equa-
give the system characteristic equation as follows in dimension-
tion can be reduced to third order, which makes the use of
less form
analytical methods feasible.
For the more general horizontal system, if the load acting on the C̄ b ⌳ 3 ⫹ 共 1⫹CC̄ b ⫹iK̄ b 兲 ⌳ 2 ⫹ 共 C⫹C̄ b ⫹iCK̄ b 兲 ⌳⫹iK̄ b ⫽0
rotor is constant such as the self-weight of rotor, the ratio of (6)
eccentricity of journal bearing will gradually decrease with the
ascension of running speed of rotor. Thus, the vertical system If the following condition is taken at the threshold speed
defined above can be regarded as the limit case of the horizontal ⌳⫽iV st (7)
system over the higher speed range. This idea makes it possible to
deduce the developing trend of the horizontal system from the a threshold speed and its corresponding whirling frequency can be
results of the vertical system. solved from Eq. 共6兲

2 Jeffcott Rotor
A Jeffcott single mass rotor with external damping system sup-
ported on two hydrodynamic journal bearings is shown in Fig. 1.
The dynamic characteristics of the bearing are expressed with four
⍀ st ⫽ 冉 1
⫹
Cb
FK b C K b
V st ⫽⫺ 冑1⫺C
冊冑
2
1⫺C 2
冎 (8)

stiffness and four damping coefficients. The external rotor damp-
ing is assumed as a small value. For the sake of simplicity, the
discussion about both vertical and horizontal configurations will
employ the same schematic diagram as shown in Fig. 1.
2.1 Basic Equations. The equations of motion for this sys-
where the minus sign in the expression of V st is due to the defi-
nition of bearing tangential force. The rotor still has a positive
precession under this circumstance.
To identify the stability characteristics described as in Eq. 共6兲,
the Routh-Hurwitz criterion for complex coefficient characteristic
equation should be employed. It has been recognized: if no exter-

冎
tem can be expressed as follows: nal damping acting on the rotor, the vertical system discussed is
always unstable over the entire running speed range; however,
mẍ d ⫹cẋ d ⫹k ␰ ⫽0
with an introduction of external damping, there exists a threshold
mÿ d ⫹cẏ d ⫹k ␩ ⫽0 speed as shown as Eq. 共8兲 in the vertical rotor system, at which
(1)
k ␰ ⫽k xx x⫹k xy y⫹c xx ẋ⫹c xy ẏ the system will go from a lower region of instability to an upper
k ␩ ⫽k yx x⫹k y y y⫹c yx ẋ⫹c y y ẏ region of stability. The major factors affecting the magnitude of

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 threshold speed ⍀ st include external damping C, bearing compos- It can be recognized from these equations that the effect of
ite index F, stiffness and damping coefficients of bearing. dynamic oil film forces at the threshold point is similar to an
2.3 Extended Stability Method for Horizontal System isotropic elastic damping.
Consider a rotor system still as shown in Fig. 1 but assembled Define
horizontally, where the weight of the single disk mass provides
the only constant load acting on the two bearings. From the pre-
vious conclusion of the study for the vertical system, some deduc-
tion to the horizontal system might be made. It is commonly rec- mk ␯ st
2
⫺ick ␯ st
g eq ⫽ ⫽k eq ⫹i ␯ st c eq (12)
ognized that there is a threshold speed in the horizontal system k⫺m ␯ st
2
⫹ic ␯ st
over the lower speed range, at which the system will run from a
stable region into an unstable one. Considering that the vertical
system discussed above can be regarded as the limit case of hori-
zontal system over the higher speed range, one conjecture may be where k eq and c eq can be regarded as the equivalent stiffness and
given that there would exist two threshold speeds for the horizon- damping of oil film respectively
tal system which will form a regional pattern of stability as one
unstable region sandwiched between two stable ones.
Assume

冎 共 k⫺m ␯ st 兲 mk ␯ st ⫺c 2 k ␯ st
2 2 2
关 x d , ␰ ,x 兴 T ⫽ 关 x do , ␰ o ,x o 兴 T e ␭t
(9) k eq ⫽ (12a)
关 y d , ␩ ,y 兴 T ⫽ 关 y do , ␩ o ,y o 兴 T e ␭t 共 k⫺m ␯ st 兲 ⫹c 2 ␯ st
2 2 2

and then
␭⫽i ␯ st (10)
⫺ck 2
Substituting above two equations into Eq. 共1兲 yields c eq ⫽ (12b)
共 k⫺m ␯ st
2 2
兲 ⫹c 2 ␯ st
2
mk ␯ st ⫺ick ␯ st

冧
2
x o ⫽ 共 k xx ⫹i ␯ st c xx 兲 x o ⫹ 共 k xy ⫹i ␯ st c xy 兲 y o
k⫺m ␯ st2
⫹ic ␯ st
mk ␯ st
2
⫺ick ␯ st Substituting Eqs. 共12a兲 and 共12b兲 into Eq. 共11兲 and adopting the
y o ⫽ 共 k yx ⫹i ␯ st c yx 兲 x o ⫹ 共 k y y ⫹i ␯ st c y y 兲 y o
k⫺m ␯ st
2
⫹ic ␯ st nontrivial solution condition for x o , y o give the following equa-
(11) tions expressed in dimensionless form

共 K eq ⫺K xx 兲共 K eq ⫺K y y 兲 ⫺ ␥ st
2
共 C eq ⫺C xx 兲共 C eq ⫺C y y 兲 ⫺K xy K yx ⫹ ␥ st
2
C xy C yx ⫽0
共 K eq ⫺K xx 兲共 C eq ⫺C y y 兲 ⫹ 共 K eq ⫺K y y 兲共 C eq ⫺C xx 兲 ⫺ 共 K xy C yx ⫹K yx C xy 兲 ⫽0 冎 (13)

From Eqs. 共13兲, the threshold speed ␻ st and frequency at onset teristic equation of the system. In this study, MATLAB was em-
␯ st 共or ␥ st ) can be solved ployed to obtain the eigenvalues directly from the system equation
of motion in matrix form. Meanwhile, the concept of system
K xy C yx ⫹K yx C xy ⫹K xx 共 C eq ⫺C y y 兲 ⫹K y y 共 C eq ⫺C xx 兲 damping is used to describe the system characteristics of stability,
K eq ⫽ which is defined as the minimum value of negative real parts of all
2C eq ⫺C xx ⫺C y y

共 K eq ⫺K xx 兲共 K eq ⫺K y y 兲 ⫺K xy K yx
␥ st2 ⫽
共 C eq ⫺C xx 兲共 C eq ⫺C y y 兲 ⫺C xy C yx
␮ B ␻ st 关 k⫺m 共 ␥ st ␻ st 兲 兴 mk 共 ␥ st ␻ st 兲 ⫺c k 共 ␥ st ␻ st 兲
2 2
K eq ⫽
␺3 关 k⫺m 共 ␥ st ␻ st 兲 2 兴 2 ⫹c 2 共 ␥ st ␻ st 兲 2
␮B ⫺ck 2
C ⫽
␺3 eq
关 k⫺m 共 ␥ st ␻ st 兲 2 兴 2 ⫹c 2 共 ␥ st ␻ st 兲 2
If external damping is assumed to be zero, the above equations
will be reduced to the Lund Stability Method where only equiva-
lent stiffness was presented.
Although Eqs. 共14兲 cannot be solved directly, a phenomenon
should be noticed. While there is only single threshold speed in
the situation without external damping described by the Lund Sta-
bility Method, the rotor with external damping might have double
threshold speeds, which is implied in Eqs. 共14兲. This indirectly
confirms the deduction discussed in the first paragraph of this
section.
2.4 Instability Boundary Analysis. In order to recognize
the real stability pattern of a horizontal system, it is necessary to
conduct numerical analysis. One option is to calculate the charac-
§
eigenvalues
u s ⫽min兵 u i 其
(15)
2 2
Consider a Jeffcott single mass rotor system with external
damping as shown in Fig. 1. Assume the disk mass 2m⫽50 kg
共110.2 lb兲, the stiffness of shaft 2k⫽13.72⫻106 N/m (7.82
⫻104 lbf/in), the diameter of journal bearing D⫽50 mm 共1.97 in兲
with the width B⫽30 mm 共1.18 in兲 and clearance ratio ␺ ⫽2.5
(14) ⫻10⫺3 . The lubricating oil is 20# Turbine and its dynamic
viscosity at 50°C is ␮ ⫽1.92⫻10⫺2 N•s/m2 (2.84
⫻10⫺6 lbf•s/in2 ).
Figure 2 is the plot of system damping versus rotor speed
curves of the example system with various external damping val-
ues. It can be seen that under the circumstance of no external
damping existing (C⫽0), the vertical system will always be un-
stable while the horizontal system will get into an upper region of
instability from its previous region of stability. When there exists
the external damping, the vertical system will get into an upper
region of stability after going through a lower region of instability.
Meanwhile the horizontal system will normally have two thresh-
old speeds that evolve a stability pattern as one region of instabil-
ity sandwiched between two regions of stability, whose top region
of stability is up-boundary free. With the increase of value of

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Fig. 2 System damping vs. speed
external damping, the threshold speed of the vertical system will
decrease while the width of unstable region for the horizontal
system will reduce. When the external damping is increased to a
certain value, the middle region of instability will disappear,
which means the horizontal system will always be stable over the
entire running speed range. It should be noticed that these results
basically agree with that of work by Crandall 关12,13兴. For ex-
ample, for no load configuration in 关13兴 which is equivalent to the
vertical system here, the rotor has only one threshold speed indi-
cating variation from the instability to stability region. With nor-
mal load configuration, which can be regarded as the horizontal
system in this paper, the rotor will proceed from the stability at
low speed, to instability, back to stability region at high speed.
Crandall 关13兴 found that with large load, the rotor has no threshold
of instability while in this work the rotor will be always stable
with large external damping values 共also refer in Fig. 3兲.
Figure 3 is the stability map, a curve of threshold speeds versus
external damping, of the horizontal system while the threshold
speed curve of the vertical system is also over plotted in dot form
as a reference to the former. This figure is helpful to explain the
above calculation results.
⫺ 共 M j ⫹FC b C⫹1 兲 V st
3
M j V st
⍀ st ⫽
FK b C
1⫹2M j ⫺M j C ⫾ 冑共 1⫹M j C 2 ⫹2M j C 兲共 1⫹M j C 2 ⫺2M j C 兲
2
2
V st ⫽
2M j
It is easy to find that the major difference of this result from that
of the Jeffcott rotor is the appearance of another threshold speed
due to the journal mass involved.
3.2 Numerical Calculation and Discussion. Consider an
extended Jeffcott rotor system, which is of the same parameters as
the previous calculation example discussed in section 2.4 except
there is an equivalent journal mass acting on each end of the rotor.
The numerical calculation is also conducted by using MATLAB
to solve the metrical system equations of motion. Figure 4 is the
plot of system damping versus speed when m j /m⫽0.1. It can be
seen that with the introduction of the journal mass a new threshold
appears in both vertical and horizontal systems, which forms a top
and final boundary regarding to the stable operation consideration.
The basic regional pattern of stability for the vertical system is the
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Fig. 3 Horizontal system stability map
3 Extended Jeffcott Rotor
Next, an extended Jeffcott rotor, which is a better approxima-
tion to a real rotor, is employed to conduct further study. Under
this circumstance, the equivalent journal masses located at two
ends of the rotor as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1 will be in-
cluded to form a two mass system.
3.1 Vertical System. By adopting the same processing
method as described in the sections of 2.1 and 2.2, the following
complex equations of motion can be obtained
冎
m 共 Z̈ r ⫹Z̈ 兲 ⫹c 共 Ż r ⫹Ż 兲 ⫹kZ r ⫽0
(16)
m j Z̈⫹c b Ż⫹kZ r ⫺ik b Z⫽0
where m j represents the journal mass at single side.
Its corresponding characteristic equation in dimensionless form
can be derived
M j ⌳ 4 ⫹ 共 M j C⫹C̄ b 兲 ⌳ 3 ⫹ 共 M j ⫹CC̄ b ⫹iK̄ b ⫹1 兲 ⌳ 2
⫹ 共 C⫹C̄ b ⫹iCK̄ b 兲 ⌳⫹iK̄ b ⫽0 (17)
Hence, the threshold speeds and whirling frequencies at onset
can be solved as follows
冧
(18)
unstable first, the stable next, and the unstable last, divided by two
threshold speeds. As for the horizontal system, two stable and two
unstable regions divided by three threshold speeds, form a basic
pattern.
It can also be seen from Fig. 4 that the fist several unstable
regions could be reduced or eradicated with the increase of the
external damping value. But this damping has little effect on the
last top threshold speed for both systems, which is mainly depen-
dent on the value of journal mass. The above facts demonstrate
that the external damping is very helpful to improve the system
stability at the lower speed region but unhelpful to affect the in-
stability boundary at the higher speed range.
Figure 5 is the system damping versus speed curves when
m j /m⫽0.3. It is seen that when the journal mass is increased, the
Transactions of the ASME
 rotor system. Furthermore, the journal mass has no obvious effect
on the lower threshold speeds and the corresponding region
patterns.
Figure 6 is the system stability map of the extended Jeffcott
rotor. It can be clearly seen that a certain value of external damp-
ing and small portion of journal mass would be very beneficial to
improve the stability characteristics of the system over the entire
running speed range.

4 Conclusions
From the study on both the Jeffcott rotor and the extended
Jeffcott rotor, the following conclusions can be obtained:
1. For the Jeffcott rotor with external damping, there is one
threshold speed in the vertical system at which the rotor will get
into an upper stable region from the previous unstable one. In the
horizontal system there are two threshold speeds to evolve a sta-
bility pattern as one region of instability sandwiched between two
Fig. 4 System damping vs. speed of the extended Jeffcott ro-
tor „ m j Õ m Ä0.1…
regions of stability.
2. With the introduction of equivalent journal mass, another
threshold appears which forms a top and final boundary to the
stable operation of the extended Jeffcott rotor.
3. With the increase of the external damping value, the first
several unstable regions can be reduced or eradicated. Meanwhile
this external damping has little effect on the last top threshold
speed. These facts demonstrate that the external damping is very
helpful to improve the system stability at the lower speed region
but unhelpful to affect the instability boundary at the higher speed
range.
4. When the portion of journal mass is increased, the last top
threshold speed will decrease. Hence, a small journal mass will be
helpful to broaden the entire region of stability for the rotor sys-
tem. Furthermore, the journal mass has no obvious effect on the
lower threshold speeds and the corresponding region patterns.
5. It has been shown that a certain value of external damping
and a small journal mass would be very beneficial to improve the
stability characteristics of the system over the entire running
speed range.

Acknowledgments
Fig. 5 System damping vs. speed of the extended Jeffcott ro-
tor „ m j Õ m Ä0.3… The authors are grateful to the Virginia Tech Rotor Dynamics
Lab Industrial Affiliates Group and VT Energy Management Cen-
ter for their support and interest in this research work.

last top threshold speed will decrease. Hence, a small journal mass Nomenclature
will be helpful to broaden the entire region of stability for the B ⫽ width of bearing
C ⫽ dimensionless external rotor damping, C⫽c/(m ␻ n )
C b ⫽ dimensionless short bearing damping for vertical sys-
tem, C b ⫽c b ␺ 3 /( ␮ B)
C̄ b ⫽ dimensionless short bearing damping for vertical sys-
tem, C̄ b ⫽c b /(m ␻ n )
C eq ⫽ dimensionless equivalent damping of oil film, C eq
⫽c eq ␺ 3 /( ␮ B)
C i j ⫽ dimensionless bearing damping, C i j ⫽c i j ␺ 3 /( ␮ B)
(i, j⫽x,y)
C̄ i j ⫽ dimensionless bearing damping, C̄ i j ⫽c i j /(m ␻ n ) (i, j
⫽x,y)
c ⫽ external rotor damping
c b ⫽ short bearing damping for vertical system
c eq ⫽ equivalent damping of oil film
c i j ⫽ bearing damping (i, j⫽x,y)
F ⫽ composite index of bearing, F⫽ ␮ B/(m ␻ n ␺ 3 )
i ⫽ unit of imaginary, i⫽ 冑⫺1
K b ⫽ dimensionless short bearing stiffness for vertical sys-
tem, K b ⫽k b ␺ 3 /( ␮ B ␻ )
K̄ b ⫽ dimensionless short bearing stiffness for vertical sys-
Fig. 6 System stability map of the extended Jeffcott rotor tem, K̄ b ⫽k b /k

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 K eq ⫽ dimensionless equivalent stiffness of oil film, K eq
⫽k eq ␺ 3 /( ␮ B ␻ )
K i j ⫽ dimensionless bearing stiffness, K i j ⫽k i j ␺ 3 /( ␮ B ␻ )
(i, j⫽x,y)
K̄ i j ⫽ dimensionless bearing stiffness, K̄ i j ⫽k i j /k (i, j⫽x,y)
k ⫽ rotor stiffness
k b ⫽ short bearing stiffness for vertical system
k eq ⫽ equivalent stiffness of oil film
k i j ⫽ bearing stiffness (i, j⫽x,y)
M j ⫽ dimensionless mass of journal, M j ⫽m j /m
m ⫽ mass of disk
m j ⫽ mass of journal
t ⫽ time
u i ⫽ negative real part of the i-th order eigenvalue
u s ⫽ system damping, u s ⫽min兵ui其
V st ⫽ dimensionless whirling frequency at threshold speed,
V st ⫽ ␯ st / ␻ n
␯ st ⫽ whirling frequency at threshold speed
x ⫽ absolute displacement of journal center in X-direction
x d ⫽ absolute displacement of disk geometric center in
X-direction
x do ⫽ initial amplitude of vibration for disk geometric cen-
ter in X-direction
x o ⫽ initial amplitude of vibration for journal center in
X-direction
y ⫽ absolute displacement of journal center in Y-direction
y d ⫽ absolute displacement of disk geometric center in
Y-direction
y do ⫽ initial amplitude of vibration for disk geometric cen-
ter in Y-direction
y o ⫽ initial amplitude of vibration for journal center in
Y-direction
Z ⫽ absolute complex displacement of journal center
Z d ⫽ absolute complex displacement of disk geometric
center
Z r ⫽ relative complex displacement of disk geometric cen-
ter
Z o ⫽ initial complex amplitude of vibration for journal
center
Z ro ⫽ initial relative complex amplitude of vibration for
disk geometric center
⌳ ⫽ dimensionless eigenvalue, ⌳⫽␭/ ␻ n
⍀ st ⫽ dimensionless threshold speed, ⍀ st ⫽ ␻ st / ␻ n
422 Õ Vol. 125, OCTOBER 2003
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␥ st ⫽ ratio of whirling frequency at onset to threshold
speed, ␥ st ⫽ ␯ st / ␻ st
␩ ⫽ relative displacement of disk geometric center in
Y-direction
␭ ⫽ eigenvalue, ␭⫽⫺u⫹i ␯
␮ ⫽ dynamic viscosity of oil
␻ ⫽ rotor speed
␻ n ⫽ natural frequency of rotor on rigid support, ␻ n
⫽ 冑k/m
␻ st ⫽ threshold speed
␰ ⫽ relative displacement of disk geometric center in
X-direction
␺ ⫽ clearance ratio of bearing
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