A squeeze film damper adds a spring and dashpot in series between a bearing and the housing. In a rotor-bearing system it
- Allows significant shift in critical speeds
- Damps high resonances
- Reduces dynamic loads transmitted through the bearing thereby increasing bearing life
A squeeze film damper is not used as a stand-alone product. It is always used with a journal bearing. It provides the following benefits to the bearings
- Rolling element bearings - These bearing lack internal damping and are very stiff. This makes it difficult to use rolling element bearings in high speed applications where the rotor is expected to operate above bending critical speeds. A squeeze film damper provides the necessary damping and stiffness allowing rolling element bearings to be used in high speed applications. The more compact design of our squeeze film dampers than traditional squirrel cage dampers used in aerospace applications makes it easy to introduce dampers in smaller spaces.
- Rocker back tilting pad bearings - These bearing suffer from pivot wear, brinelling and fretting due to the dynamic loads. The resulting increase in clearance may cause rotor to become unstable over time. Also, high dynamic loads can cause the babbitt lining of these bearings to fail due to fatigue. By using a squeeze film damper, these problems are significantly reduced due to the reduction in dynamic loads transmitted through the bearing