Intelligent Rotor Bearing System Design Tool

To address the current separation between bearing analysis and rotor response calculations, a combined computational tool is proposed to be developed that couples the rotor-bearing system more directly. This tool provides for the completethermo-mechanical analysis of rotating machinery structures by combining an advanced representation of rotor geometry with embedded calculations of bearing dynamic performance that makes no apriori assumptions regarding load distribution. Both rollingelement and fluid film bearings will be accommodated by the analysis. The response calculations will be incorporated into a fully integrated, platform independent, graphical user interface that features a complete set of pre- and post-processing displaysalong with an expert system to guide model definition and result interpretation. The Phase I work will focus on establishing the analysis requirements, defining methodology, testing prototype software, and creating a software design specification usingmodern modeling techniques. Development of the tool will be accomplished in Phase II using the design specification. By integrating the component level analysis of bearing performance into the system level rotor response calculations, the inherentinaccuracy associated with common assumptions on applied bearing loading will be eliminated. With such a tool, a machinery designer would gain significantly more insight into overall system response, allowing more design alternatives to be investigated,and offering the capability to optimize the complete rotor-bearing system. The combined analysis will also benefit the end product by eliminating extensive iterations between component and system level analyses, reducing design time, and with improvedaccuracy, lowering life cycle cost. Potential applications of this technology include manufacturers of rotating machinery such as pumps, turbines, compressors, generators, fans, mixers, agitators, blowers, couplings, and shafting.