Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2016: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition
GT2016
June 13 – 17, 2016, Seoul, South Korea
THE INFLUENCE OF HYDRODYNAMIC BEARING CONFIGURATION ON MORTON EFFECT
Xiaomeng Tong
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX, USA
Email: tongxiaomeng1989@tamu.edu
ABSTRACT
The Morton effect (ME) results from the synchronous,
thermal excitation of a rotating shaft because of the uneven
viscous shearing in hydrodynamic bearings and the asymmetric
temperature distribution in shafts. The temperature difference
bends the rotor, reducing the film thickness and increasing the
thermal unbalance, which may cause excessive vibration level
and unsteady phase angle. To predict the potential thermal
instability from the ME, the finite element method is used to
solve the transient rotordynamics and temperature distribution
in the lubricant, bearing and shaft. The conventional thermal
unbalance method is replaced by a more accurate thermal shaft
bow model for rotordynamic analysis and the three-dimensional
energy equation is utilized for the lubricant temperature
prediction. Considering that the temperature change in the shaft
and bearing occurs quite slowly relative to the shaft vibration
deflection change, a staggered scheme is employed to assign a
longer period to update the system temperature distribution and
a shorter period to update the vibration orbits. Verified by a real
overhung compressor model, the ME instability onset speed
predicted by simulation coincides with the tested speed, at
which large vibration level is observed. The hysteresis
phenomenon, which is quite typical for thermal-induced
vibration problems, can be caused by the ME and is
demonstrated by the simulation. A stability recovery speed is
confirmed, above which the vibration level and the rotor
temperature difference will decrease to an acceptable level and
the system will become stable. To investigate the influence of
bearing configuration on ME, different bearing types including
fixed pad bearings (FPBs) and tilting pad bearings (TPBs) with
various pad numbers are analyzed. Meanwhile, the bearing
clearance and preload intentionally remain unchanged in the
comparison. Results show that despite similar critical speeds,
the TPBs are better at suppressing the ME with lower average
temperature and larger film thickness in the lubricant, especially
at high speeds. This is due to the self-tilting ability for the TPBs
to maintain a satisfactory bearing clearance. The four-pad TPBs
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GT2016-56654
Alan Palazzolo
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX, USA
Email: a-palazzolo@tamu.edu
outperform the five-pad TPBs with both lower average
temperature and smaller temperature difference in the shaft
considering that the effective load-carrying area is larger in the
4-pad bearings. Moreover, the asymmetric pivot offset of 0.6 is
simulated to demonstrate its superiority in mitigating the ME
compared with the common 0.5 offset. Considering that the ME
instability occurs in the vicinity of the critical speeds in most
cases, the bearing diameter-length ratio should be carefully
designed to achieve a larger separation margin.
INTRODUCTION
Hydrodynamic bearings (HBs) have gained wide
application in modern turbomachinery industries due to greater
geometrical diversity, larger damping and capability of no
contacting between rotors and stators. Nevertheless, in the past
decade engineers of HBs report more frequent encountering of
thermally induced instability, known as the Morton effect (ME),
and meanwhile hysteresis phenomenon is usually observed
during coast-down testing [1-4]. The ME is caused by non-
uniform viscous shearing around the journal inside the HBs and
shafts will be bent due to temperature difference ( T ) across
the journal circumference. The thermal bow can be modelled
with equivalent imbalance, providing synchronous excitation
for the rotor and under certain conditions can facilitate the
growth of the T across the journal circumference, developing
into positive feedback and amplifying the bearing orbit until
limit cycles or direct rubbing between the bearing and journal.
The ME theory was firstly established by Keogh and
Morton [5] in 1993, where the rotor differential heating and the
thermal bending were investigated. The relationship between a
prescribed bearing orbit and the steady temperature differential
in the journal was investigated. Later, Keogh and Morton [6]
incorporated the thermal bending into the rotor dynamics and
performed the stability analysis in the frequency domain.
Results demonstrated that the ME could drive a system
designed to be satisfactory with existing criteria into instability.
Two practical cases related to the ME instability were reported
 by de Jongh in 1996 [1] and 1998 [2] in overhung compressors
with tilting pad bearings. Hysteresis was observed during the
coast-down testing and was believed to be caused by the ME.
The journal temperature distribution was measured by RTDs
(resistance temperature devices) and illustrated that the
journal T rose drastically and kept changing coinciding with
the rotor high vibration level. Reducing the overhung mass or
increasing the bearing clearance was found to mitigate the
instability problem. In 2004, Kirk and Balbahadur [7-8]
imposed an imbalance threshold criterion of 15% rotor weight
to replace the classic control theory to determine the ME
instability in frequency domain. An approximate form of the
energy equation was utilized to solve the film temperature
distribution, which neglected the axial variation, and then the
rotor thermal bow was calculated through an analytical
expression by Dimorgonas [9]. Different from Kirk’s method,
Childs and Saha [10] predicted the rotor temperature
distribution by summing the temperature components from the
forward and backward orbits. Inspired by previous research,
Murphy [11] proposed a simplified ME prediction method by
assuming that the relationship among the bearing orbit size,
journal T and thermal imbalance can be linearized.
Recent progress was made through the finite element
method (FEM) for transient rotordynamic and thermodynamic
analysis by Suh and Palazzolo [12], where 3D FEM was
utilized to solve the film temperature and the heat conduction in
the rotor and bearings. The film temperature variation in the
axial, radial and circumferential directions were considered.
Moreover, the staggered algorithm was designed to allocate
longer integration time for the thermodynamic solver than the
rotordynamic solver considering that the former was much
slower due to large thermal constants of the bearing and shaft.
The current paper is the extension of Suh and Palazzolo’s
research but adopts a more accurate bowed rotor method
instead of modelling the ME with equivalent thermal imbalance.
The accurate prediction of the ME aims to provide practical
remedies for existing ME or eliminate the potential thermal
instability in the design phase. Considering that the ME is
closely related to the bearing design, comparison of various
bearing types in terms of the ME is necessary to provide
guidelines for bearing selection. Meanwhile, parametric studies
of bearing geometric configuration are also performed to seek
the reasonable bearing design to mitigate the ME instability.
Note that the “stability” is no longer related to eigenvalues in
classic control theory. Instead, it is used to describe the
excessive synchronous vibration over trip level or the minimum
oil thickness ratio in bearings falling below the user-defined
threshold.
NOMENCLATURE
ME Morton effect
M rb Mass matrix of the rotor-bearing system
Ur Rotor dynamic vector excluding rotor blow
U bow Rotor thermal bow
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Fme Mechanical imbalance force
Fgyro Gyroscopic force
Fbrg Forces from hydrodynamic bearings
Fext External forces
 Rotor speed (radius/s)
Cb Bearing radial clearance
BOWED ROTOR METHOD
The Euler-Bernoulli beam rotor is utilized for rotordynamic
analysis with each node having 4 degrees of freedom (DOFs),
x, y, x , y in lateral directions. The governing dynamic equation
is shown below in Eq. 1, where the damping and stiffness of
linear bearings (e.g., bearing forces are linearized about the
equilibrium position) and couplings have been incorporated into
the rotor-bearing damping and stiffness matrices Crb and K rb .
M rbU  CrbU  Krb (U  Ubow )  F  Fme  Fgyro  Fbrg  Fext (1)
Substituting U r  U  Ubow gives
M rbU r  CrbU r  KrbU r  F  M rbUbow  CrbUbow (2)
Solving Eq. 2 will provide the transient rotor dynamic vector U,
and the bearing orbit can be quantified by picking the
corresponding bearing components in U. The nodal forces
Fix , Fiy and moments M ix , M iy due to the thermal bow U bow is
expressed in Eq. 3, which is acquired by extracting the nodal
components of the right two terms in Eq. 2.
[ Fix , Fiy , M ix , M iy ]Tbow  M i _ rbUi _ bow  Ci _ rbUi _ bow (3)
This bowed rotor method is quite different from the equivalent
thermal imbalance method from earlier researches [7,8,10,12],
which model the ME with the following nodal unbalance force
in Eq. 4, where mi is the nodal mass, xi and yi are the nodal
deflections in U bow . Comparing with Eq. 3, note that the
unbalance method neglects both the moments induced by the
transverse angles in U bow and the damping effects, which may
be affected by U bow in seals, squeeze film dampers, etc.
[ Fix , Fiy , M ix , M iy ]Tbow  [mi xi 2 , mi yi 2 ,0,0]T (4)
At first glance it may appear that the synchronous, harmonic
steady state response can be expressed with Eq. 5, where the ‘^’
represents the complex magnitude, for instance, U r  Uˆ r eit .
Uˆ  ( 2 M  iC  K )1[( 2 M  iC )Uˆ  Fˆ ] (5)
r rb rb rb rb rb bow
Nevertheless, the ME-induced U bow can be quite complicated
with time varying magnitude and phase angle and the Fbrg may
be also highly nonlinear due to the changing bearing orbit and
oil viscosity. Thus, a nonlinear transient algorithm with
comprehensive analysis of rotordynamics, thermodynamics and
thermal deformation should be utilized to ensure accurate ME
prediction.
 ROTOR THERMAL DEFLECTION CALCULATION
The shaft thermal expansion can affect the rotordynamics
from two perspectives (a) the increase of average journal radius
will reduce the operating bearing clearance, thus making the
bearing stiffer than design. (b) The non-uniform radial
expansion due to the circumferential journal T will bend the
rotor and excite the synchronous vibration. Thus, accurate
calculation of the rotor thermal deflection is necessary for high-
fidelity rotordynamic prediction.
The most accurate FEM for shaft thermal deflection would
utilize the 3D solid elements along the entire rotor length. This
method, despite its best accuracy, can be quite intense in
computation and thus time-consuming. Earlier studies [12,13]
revealed that the shaft temperature rise was only observable
close to the bearing position, and decayed fast outside the
bearing length. Thus, the temperature increase in the rotor
sections away from the bearing can be neglected, making it
possible to estimate the entire rotor deflection by focusing on
the ‘thermal rotor’ section, which is adjacent to the bearing. In
this paper, the length of the thermal rotor is set to be 7 times the
bearing length, thus providing satisfactory accuracy and
improving the calculation speed as well.
Beam Ele Y
Fluid Film Brg
3D Solid Ele
Node
Coupling 6 current simulations for highly accurate prediction.
8 4
Linear Brg
7 53
Y 10 9 1
Z X 1113 15
-X al
Connecting h erm r 12
14
16
T oto
beam R viscosity is shown in Eq. 6, where the bearing is stationary and
Fig. 1 FEM for rotor thermal deflection
In current research, the locally thermal deformations of the
journal are determined with 3D solid elements for best
accuracy. The portions of the shaft excluding the journal regions
are modeled with beam elements for high computational
efficiency. This hybrid FEM method is illustrated in Fig. 1. The
bending forces and moments in the solid elements will be
transmitted to the beam elements through fictitious connecting
beams elements on both sides of the thermal rotor. Note that
Fig. 1 shows 16 connecting beams on each surface for instance.
Moreover, the stiffness of the connecting beams should be large
enough to transmit bending forces and meanwhile cannot be too
rigid, otherwise, the side surfaces of the thermal rotor will be
fully restrained by these beams, thus generating unrealistic
deformation. In this paper, the diameter of the connecting
beams is set to be the same as that of the hydrodynamic bearing
through benchmark with experienced formulas.
Once the temperature solver provides the temperature
distribution of the thermal rotor, the nodal thermal loads due to
the temperature increase of the thermal rotor will be applied to
the corresponding solid elements for thermal deflection
calculation. Note that the bearing (both the hydrodynamic
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bearing and additional linear bearing) and coupling stiffness
will be imposed onto the shaft to provide lateral constraints.
PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE OF FLUID FILM
The ME is caused by uneven oil viscous shearing inside the
bearing and can be significantly affected by the oil temperature
due to the viscosity-temperature relationship   0e (T T ) , 0
where 0 is the reference viscosity at temperature T0 , and  is
the viscosity coefficient. Therefore, the oil temperature should
be accurately predicted to update the viscosity as a function of
time. And in current simulations, the 3D energy equation is
employed and solved with FEM to provide the oil temperature
distribution in all radial, circumferential and axial directions.
The nodal velocity distribution required in the energy equation
is solved from the Reynolds equation with FEM and meanwhile
the viscosity in the Reynolds equation is closely related to the
temperature output of the energy equation. Both coupled
relationships require the above two equations to be
simultaneously solved, which is realized by dividing the entire
bearing orbit into dozens of segments and solving both
equations successively within each segments. Previous studies
used the simplified 2D energy equation by neglecting the axial
temperature variation [14], which is proven to overestimate the
ME in most cases [12]. These assumptions are removed in
2 Reynolds Equation
By assuming that the fluid is Newtonian and inertial and
body force are neglected, the Reynolds equation with variable
the shaft is rotating with surface speed U  [ux , u y ]  [ R,0] , h
is the film thickness and varies temporally and spatially in the
circumferential and axial direction. The output of Eq. 6 is the
pressure distribution P in the circumferential and axial direction
while neglecting the variation in the thickness direction.
 ( D1P)  D2 U  h / t  0 (6)
hz
hz h   f1d dz  1
Where, D1    f d dz  D2  f d , D2  0 0h , f  , f1 
 
 f1d
00 0
0
The velocity distribution in the circumferential and axial
direction, expressed with u and w, is shown in Eq. 7. Note that
the velocity component is zero in the film thickness direction.
h z
z  f d  z  f1d
[u, w]  (  f d  0h  f1d )P  h
0
U (7)
 f1d  f1d
0 0
0 0
Energy Equation
The 3D oil temperature distribution is obtained by solving
the energy equation Eq. 8, where the velocity distribution
[u, w] is obtained from Eq.7, x, y, z indicate the circumferential,
radial and axial direction of each film node.
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 T T  u w 
 c(u  w )  k ( 2T )   ( )2  ( ) 2 
x z  y y 
Note that the viscosity  is inherited from the previous step
and will be updated by   0 e (T T0 ) once the variable T is
solved from Eq. 8 and will be used for the next step iteration.
NONLINEAR TRANSIENT ANALYSIS ALGORITHM
Previous published testing results show that the ME can be
activated by rotational speeds, and more specifically, the
instability or limit cycles can be developed when the rotor
speed is higher than the instability onset speed. Moreover, the
ME can also be intensified by rotor speed acceleration, proving
that the ME is highly process-oriented. For instance, when
testing a single overhung compressor [2], de Jongh mentioned
that it was possible to run the compressor by changing the speed
very slowly and a speed increase of 1 krpm within 10 seconds
directly triggered the instability. For another case [1], by
quickly raising the rotor speed, it was found possible to run
through the unstable speed range and reach stability at higher
speeds. These published cases demand a transient method for
the ME prediction instead of the conventional steady state
analysis in speed/frequency domain. In the current research, the
nonlinear transient analysis is based on the following solvers
with each one dealing with one sub-problem specifically.
(1) Transient rotor and bearing dynamic solver.
The entire bearing orbit is divided into dozens of segments
temporally and within each segment the transient hydrodynamic
bearing forces will be calculated by Reynolds equation with
varying viscosity. The oil viscosity is temperature dependent
and counts on the energy equation for updating the oil
temperature. The transient hydrodynamic forces together with
the thermal bow from the previous step are plugged into the
rotor and bearing dynamic Eq. 2 to predict the transient
dynamic response. Afterwards, the simulation will proceed to
solver 2 when the rotordynamics converges after period tspan1 .
(2) Transient rotor and bearing temperature solver.
The temperature and heat flux on the bearing/oil and
oil/journal boundary surfaces are assumed to be continuous.
The 3D FEM is utilized to solve the transient heat conduction in
the thermal rotors as well as bearings for temperature
prediction. Heat convection boundary conditions are imposed
on the side surfaces of the rotor and bearings. The thermal
solver 2 will be numerically integrated through period tspan 2 .
(3) Rotor and bearing thermal deformation solver.
When the temperature distribution of the rotor and bearings
is provided by solver 2, the corresponding thermal deformation
will be predicted by the 3D FEM, which shares the same nodes
as the thermal solver 2. The thermal deformation will be
recorded for film thickness updating in solver 1 when
hydrodynamic forces are needed. Moreover, the updated rotor
thermal bow will be returned to solver 1 for dynamic prediction.
Three solvers are processed successively in time domain
and iterated until the system becomes stable with all
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rotordynamics and thermodynamics converging or developing
(8) into limit cycles or instability. Note that the thermal solver 2 is
much slower than dynamic solver 1, which means that the
dynamic solver 1 will soon converge and the dynamic steady
states won’t change evidently without updating the temperature
distribution of the rotor & bearing and the thermal bow,
provided by solver 2 and 3. Thus, the staggered scheme is
employed by allocating longer integration time for solver 2 than
solver 1, i.e. tspan 2  N  tspan1 , N  1 . In current research, N is
set to be 200 by estimation through numerical experiments,
where different N values are tested based on the rotor speed and
rotor thermal constant. The final N is selected to balance the
accuracy and calculation speed. The flow chart of the nonlinear
transient algorithm is listed in Fig. 2. The dynamic and thermal
response in this paper is calculated by the ‘ode23’ solver in
MATLAB with the relative tolerance of 1E-3 and absolute
tolerance of 1E-4 to balance the calculating speed and accuracy.
Input rotor & bearing
position, Ubow = 0
[Timedyn , Ydyn , Tfilm ]  Dyn_Solver(tstart , tend ,U bow )
Solve for rotor transient position Ydyn and film
temperature Tfilm.
[ Pfilm , Fbrg ]  sub_Reynold(hthick , film )
Input film thickness hthick and viscosity film , solve
Reynolds equation for film pressure Pfilm and Fbrg.
[Tfilm , film ]  sub_Energy( Pfilm )
Solve energy equation for Tfilm and update film
[ Fsum ]  sub_Sum( Fbrg , Fbow , me , mg , etc.)
Sum all forces to get the resultant force Fsum
Convergence of Orbits? No
Yes
[Tsft , Tbrg ]  Temperature_Solver(
YES Tfilm , tstart , tend )
Calculate the temperature distribution in the
shaft and bearing from tstart to tend
[U bow ]  ThermDeform_Solver(Tsft )
Calculate Ubow with FEM.
System stable? Stable and
t>Tend? t<Tend
Unstable, or t>Tend
END
Fig. 2 Nonlinear transient analysis algorithm
COMPRESSOR DESCRIPTION AND SIMULATION
Current simulation is based on de Jongh’s published case
[2] where a compressor with a large overhung impeller was
reported to experience excessive synchronous vibration at the
NDE bearing. The rotor was supported by two 5-pad tilting pad
journal bearings (TPJBs) at both ends. During testing, the rotor
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 vibration level was found unacceptable above 7200 rpm and the system into instability. The ME induced instability around 8
compressor was tripped several times. The compressor krpm is confirmed by de Jongh [2].
configuration and the closest critical speed are illustrated in Fig.
3a and Fig.3b, and the detailed parameters are listed in Table 1.
In this paper, the DE bearing, located at node 4, is modeled with
linear coefficients in the vicinity of testing speed for simplicity,
and the NDE bearing, located at node 12, will be analyzed with
transient ME simulation. The mechanical imbalance is located
at node 18 with the magnitude of 2.7 104 kg  m .

DE-Bearing NDE-Bearing

Fig. 4 Rotor PK-PK vibration amplitude at the bearing node

Unbalance

Fig. 3a Compressor configuration

Fig. 5 Peak journal T and minimum oil thickness on the NDE

Fig. 3b Damped critical speed and mode shape In Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, the rotor speed increases linearly from
Table 1 Detailed compressor parameters 5 kpm to 9.5 krpm and decreases to 5 krpm after staying
Lubricant parameters Bearing parameters constant at 9.5 krpm for 7 mins. The phenomenon of hysteresis,
Ref. viscosity [Ns/m2] 0.0203 Pad type LOP i.e. the vibration amplitude during run-down is larger than run-
Viscosity coeff. [1/℃] 0.031 No. pads 5 up, typically exhibited in the thermally induced problem, can be
Supply temp. [℃] 50 Pad arc angle [deg] 56
observed in Fig. 6. Note that when the speed passes 7.3 krpm,
Inlet pressure [Pa] 1.32E5 Radius of shaft [m] 0.0508
Ref. temp. [℃] 50 Bearing clearance [m] 7.49E-5 which is close to the damped critical speed with large overhung
Shaft Parameters Preload 0.5 deflection in its mode shape, the rotor vibration increases
Heat capacity [J/kgK] 453.6 Bearing length[m] 0.0508 significantly. Fig. 7 demonstrates the 1X polar plot at the NDE
Heat conductivity[W/mK] 50 Therm.expan.ratio[1/℃] 1.3×E-5 bearing, note that the vibration level is quite low (close to the
Therm.expan.ratio[1/℃] 1.22E-5 Ref. temp. [℃] 25
center) at first, and then suddenly develops into a large spiral
Ref. temp. [℃] 25 Linear Bearing
Therm. rotor length [m] 0.3508 Kxx, Kyy [N/m] 1.7E8 with increasing amplitude and continuously changing phase
Initial imbalance [kgm] 2.7E-4 Cxx, Cyy [Ns/m] 1.0E5 angle when the speed approaches the critical speed. The coast-
down curve doesn’t trace the same curve as coast-up testing,
To verify the transient analysis algorithm, the rotor is exhibiting hysteresis phenomenon in the rotor vibration.
designed to follow the specific speed curve in Fig. 4, where it
increases linearly from 5 krpm to 8 krpm within 1 min and stays
constant for another 2 mins before it decreases to 5 krpm. The
designed peak speed of 8 krpm is slightly higher than the ME-
instability onset speed. The vibration at the NDE bearing in Fig.
4 shows that the amplitude grows monotonically even after the
speed becomes constant, and the minimum film thickness of the
NDE bearing decreases in Fig. 5 and finally reaches zero
around t=3 min, when the journal directly touches the pad
surface. The NDE journal T , i.e. the maximum temperature
difference across the journal circumference in this paper, grows Fig. 6 Vibration amplitude of NDE rotor end
from initial value of zero to more than 20o C when the rubbing is
about to occur. Actually, during real testing, the compressor has
to be shut down earlier before the excessive vibration drives the

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Fig. 7 1X polar plot of the NDE bearing
By running the transient analysis at different constant
speeds, the final steady states including both the vibration level
and temperature distribution of the rotor and bearings are
recorded with respect to speeds. Fig. 8 illustrates the vibration
level at the rotor end and the bearing location. Note that the
amplitude profile is quite similar to a “gate function”, where the
vibration increases dramatically when the speed approaches the
instability onset speed around 7 krpm and decreases to
acceptable level when the rotor speed passes the upper
boundary of the instability speed band, i.e. the stability will be
recovered. The upper boundary speed was not tested in [2]
since it was even higher than the maximum continuous
operating speed (MCOS). However, similar experiments [1] on
a different compressor confirmed that such upper boundary
speed may exist and the instability speed band could be passed
by raising the rotor speed fast before the ME fully developed.
The rotor amplitude at 7.5 krpm and 8 krpm in Fig. 8 is marked
in red to indicate that the rubbing problem occurs due to large
rotor vibration.
Fig. 8 Vibration amplitude at various speeds
In Fig. 9, the speed range of 7-8 krpm observes
large T across the journal circumference and low film
thickness ratio h/Cb. The large journal T causes significant
thermal unbalance by bending the rotor and thus magnifies the
rotor vibration. When the film thickness falls to zero, the direct
rubbing problem occurs between the bearing and the shaft,
terminating the simulation due to the numerical failure of
energy equation solver. For comparison, Fig. 10 illustrates the
vibration and maximum T across the journal circumference
when neglecting the ME-induced thermal bow, note that the
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vibration level and journal T are much lower than those
including the ME. Considering that traditional rotordynamic
analysis doesn’t provide the ME stability evaluation, the rotor
vibration and instability can be underestimated in this regard.
Fig. 9 PK journal T and minimum oil thickness at various speeds
Fig. 10 Vibration amplitude and PK journal T at various
speeds without ME
MORTON EFFECT WITH VARIOUS BEARING TYPES
Different bearing types and configurations can affect the oil
heat generation and the bearing dynamic coefficients, thus
changing both the thermodynamic and rotordynamic behavior.
The ME can be suppressed or eliminated by choosing the
correct bearing type or by modifying certain geometrical
dimensions. For instance, Lorenz and Murphy [3] reported a
case where the ME was mitigated by replacing the original
partial arc bearings with 4-lobe sleeve bearings. In the current
research, the fixed pad journal bearing (FPJBs) and the tilting
pad journal bearings (TPJBs) are chosen to be discussed in
terms of ME considering that both bearing types are widely
used in industries. The nonlinear transient ME analysis is based
on the aforementioned rotor model in [2] and results are
illustrated from Fig. 11 to Fig. 18. For both bearing types, 4-pad
and 5-pad cases are tested with the same bearing clearance and
preload as those shown in Table 1 except that the arc angle of a
single pad is 80o for the 4-pad bearing and 56o for the 5-pad
bearing. The dominating critical speeds (i.e. the critical speeds
with large vibration at the overhung node in their mode shapes)
for the 4-pad and 5-pad TPJBs are 6995 rpm and 7015 rpm
respectively; for the FPJBs, the critical speeds are 7367 and
6760 rpm for the 4-pad and 5-pad respectively.
From Fig. 11 to Fig. 14, the rotor speed follows the same
curve as Fig. 4, where the maximum speed is 8 krpm. Note that
 for the 5-pad TPJB, the pk-pk vibration amplitude in Fig. 11
and the maximum journal T in Fig. 12 grow monotonically
until t = 3 min, when the simulation is terminated due to zero
bearing clearance (see Fig. 13), i.e. direct rubbing between the
journal and pads. Nevertheless, other bearing types can
successfully complete the entire test without rubbing. The 4-pad
bearings are better at suppressing the ME than the 5-pad ones
around 8 krpm for this specific rotor considering that this
conclusion is true for both the TPJBs and the FPJBs.

Fig. 14 1X polar plot around 8 krpm for various bearings

Fig. 11 Vibration at different bearings around 8 krpm
From Fig. 15 to Fig. 18, the rotor speed follows the same
curve in Fig. 6, where the maximum speed is 9.5 krpm. Note
that the 5-pad FPJB experiences larger vibration and journal
T on the NDE than all other bearing types. Fig. 17 shows that
direct rubbing occurs around t=8.3 min, when the minimum
film thickness reaches zero for the 5-pad FPJB. The 4-pad
TPJB outperforms all other bearing types considering that it has
the lowest vibration amplitude shown in Fig. 15 and the lowest
journal T in Fig. 16. In a word, at higher speeds, the TPJBs
are better at mitigating the ME than the FPJBs considering that
the 5-pad TPJB outperforms the 5-pad FPJB and this is also
true for the 4-pad case.

Fig. 12 PK journal T around 8 krpm with various bearings

Fig. 15 Vibration at different bearings around 9.5 krpm

Fig.13 Minimum oil thickness around 8 krpm for various bearings

Fig. 16 PK journal T around 9.5 krpm for various bearings

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 its tilting angle, thus increasing the film thickness and
mitigating the oil viscous shearing.

PARAMETRIC STUDIES OF TPJB CONFIGURATION

Fig. 17 Minimum oil thickness around 9.5 krpm for various brgs
Pivot offset
The asymmetric pivot offset, which is usually larger than
0.5, makes it possible to improve the bearing load carrying
capacity by expanding the effective oil wedge area. The
nonlinear transient analysis performed in this part follows the
same speed curve as Fig. 4. The original pivot offset is 0.5 in
the aforementioned compressor, and the asymmetric offset of
0.6 is also tested here for comparison. Fig. 19 shows that for the
0.6 pivot offset case both the average journal temperature and
the T across the journal circumference are much lower than
the 0.5 offset case. Fig. 20 demonstrates that the 0.6 pivot offset
completely eliminates the rubbing problem, which occurs at t =
3 min for the 0.5 pivot offset case, and the minimum film
thickness ratio is raised to be higher than 20%. Both the lower
vibration level and the larger film thickness indicate that the
ME is effectively mitigated by using the 0.6 pivot offset.

Fig. 18 1X polar plot at different bearings around 9.5 krpm

Based on the published compressor model, the nonlinear
transient analysis at both (1) low speeds close to the ME
instability onset speed, shown from Fig. 11 to Fig. 14, and (2)
high speeds close to the upper boundary of the ME instability
speed band, shown from Fig. 15 to Fig. 18, demonstrates that
the 4-pad bearings are better at suppressing the ME than the 5-
pad bearings for this specific rotor. Despite similar dynamic Fig. 19 Average oil temperature and PK journal T with
coefficients and critical speeds (e.g. the critical speed is only various pivot offsets
0.2% different between the 4-pad and the 5-pad TPJB), the 4-
pad bearings have larger loading area for each pad, thus
reducing the static eccentricity and increasing the film
thickness. The less serious viscous shearing in the oil helps
reduce both the average temperature and circumferential T of
the journal, mitigating the ME finally.
Moreover, when operating close to the critical speeds, for
this specific rotor, the TPJBs are not always better than the
FPJBs, for instance, Fig. 11 illustrates that the 5-pad FPJB is
better than the 5-pad TPJB and this is also true for the 4-pad
case. Another practical case could be found in [3], where the
rotor MCOS was designed to be 4 krpm and was close to the 3 rd Fig. 20 Vibration amplitude and minimum film thickness of
critical speed. By comparing different bearing types and NDE bearing with various pivot offsets
geometries (e.g. tilting pad, fixed-pad, 4 lobes, 5 lobe, etc.), the
4 lobe fixed pad bearing was finally selected to solve the ME Bearing Length-Diameter Ratio
instability. The less stable behavior of the TPJBs around critical The bearing length-diameter ratio, i.e. L/D, plays an
speeds is probably due to the insufficient damping, which is important role in the rotor and bearing dynamics. Increasing the
known to be one of the limitations of TPJBs. However, at L/D ratio meanwhile keeping D constant may reduce the
higher speeds, the TPJBs outperform the FPJBs considering bearing unit load but also intensify the oil viscous shearing due
that the TPJB pad can adapt to external loads by self-adjusting to larger oil area. Lower unit loads may soften the bearing while
more serious viscous shearing can raise the journal temperature

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 and expand the journal more, thus reducing the bearing
clearance and stiffening the bearing. Therefore, the
comprehensive influence of the L/D ratio on the rotor critical
speeds can be complicated considering that both
aforementioned effects change the bearing stiffness in opposite
directions.
The original bearing L/D ratio is 0.5 in the aforementioned
compressor and in this section, L/D ratio of 0.375 and 0.75 are
also considered (D is constant) for parametric studies on the
ME. Additional rotordynamic analysis illustrates that the critical
speeds with L/D of 0.375, 0.5 and 0.75 are 6332 rpm, 7016 rpm
and 7569 rpm respectively, indicating that for this specific
bearing, extending the bearing length will increase the rotor
critical speeds. The Nonlinear transient analysis of the ME with
3 different L/D ratios are illustrated in Fig. 21-23, where the
rotor speed will follow the same curve as Fig. 4.
The vibration plot in Fig. 21 shows that the rubbing
problem between the journal and bearing occurs at t=2 min with
L/D = 0.75 and t=3 min with L/D = 0.5. And when the L/D = 0.
375, the vibration level is effectively suppressed and the
rubbing problem can be eliminated completely. Fig. 22 and Fig.
23 show that both the maximum journal T and the average
temperature of the oil & journal are reduced when the L/D
decreases to 0.375, indicating that the oil viscous shearing is
less serious and the ME is mitigated. Note that when the bearing
L/D decreases, the rotor critical speed becomes smaller, thus
being pushed away from the operational speed, and a larger
separation margin is believed to benefit the ME suppression.
Fig. 21 Vibration Amplitude at NDE TPJB with various L/D ratios
Fig.22 PK journal T on the NDE with various L/D ratios
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Fig.23 Average temperature of oil and journal on the NDE with
various L/D ratios
CONCLUSION
The Morton effect (ME) can be triggered by both rotating
speed and rotor acceleration. The nonlinear transient analysis
built on the finite element method is employed and the bowed
rotor method is utilized in this paper to replace the traditional
thermal unbalance method to predict more accurate
rotordynamic response. Based on the published compressor
model, various bearing types with different geometric
parameters are simulated and the conclusions are listed below.
These conclusions should be helpful to the reader but are
provided with a cautionary note that the Morton effect is highly
complex and individual cases should be treated with high level
simulations as presented here.
(a) The ME may result in hysteresis phenomenon, i.e., the rotor
vibration at the bearing location during coast-down is higher
than coast-up.
(b) Pad numbers may affect the ME significantly and for the
simulated rotor, 4-pad bearings are more effective than 5-pad
bearings in cooling the shaft and mitigating the ME.
(c) Tilting pad bearings are less effective than fixed pad
bearings in the ME suppression when the rotor operates close to
critical speeds due to insufficient damping of the former (this
conclusion is based on the specific rotor and is also confirmed
by another practical case [3]); however, when the rotor operates
at higher speed, the conclusion is opposite due to the pad self-
tilting capability of tilting pad bearings.
(d) The asymmetric pivot offset of 0.6 is better than 0.5 pivot
offset in the ME mitigation due to the less viscous shearing in
the oil.
(e) The bearing length/width ratio should be designed to push
the dominating critical speed further away from the operating
speed to mitigate the ME. For the rotor model in the paper, L/D
= 0.375 outperforms 0.5 and 0.75 cases.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge support of this research
from the Texas A&M Turbomachinery Research Consortium
(TRC) members companies.
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