Deformations of a piezo‐actuated bearing ring in journal bearings

An elastically deformable bearing ring is investigated. The piezo-actuated shaping of the elastic bearing ring as well as the journal motion are coupled and determine the height of the lubrication gap which takes a crucial part in the theory of hydrodynamic lubrication. The influence of the active-dynamic shaping of the bearing ring on the rotor dynamic behaviour has been investigated in [1], especially for a two-lobe journal bearing. The present investigations are aiming at the active-static shaping of a bearing ring, i.e. a finite number of piezo actuators is used to cause deformations of the bearing ring. Moreover, the realisation of different shapes by the introduced piezo actuators is examined, whereas the desired shapes are not necessarily limited to two-lobe geometries.