US 2017/0321747 A1Published application

Bearing damper with external support spring systems and methods

AssigneeGeneral Electric Company

InventorsBugra Han Ertas, Kyle Robert Snow

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

One embodiment describes a bearing damper including a housing; a damper with an annular gap and an internal spring, in which the annular gap is formed between an inner rim and an outer rim of the damper, the internal spring circumferentially bounds the annular gap, the outer rim is coupled to the housing, and the annular gap is configured to be filled with fluid used to dampen vibrations produced on a drive shaft; and an external spring coupled to the housing and to the inner rim, in which the external includes an axial stiffness engineered to externally offset axial forces exerted on the inner rim of the and a radial stiffness engineered to externally offset a first portion of radial forces exerted on the inner rim and to permit a second portion of the radial forces to propagate the vibrations from the drive shaft to the inner rim.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A bearing damper assembly configured to be used in a turbomachine system, comprising:

a housing;
a segmented squeeze film damper comprising a first annular gap and a first internal spring, wherein the first annular gap is formed between an inner rim and an outer rim of the segmented squeeze film damper, the first internal spring circumferentially bounds the first annular gap, the outer rim is coupled to the housing, and the first annular gap is configured to be filled with fluid used to dampen vibrations produced on a drive shaft of the turbomachine system;
an external spring coupled to the housing and to the inner rim of the segmented squeeze film damper, wherein the external spring is tuned to adjust:
an axial stiffness of the external spring to externally offset axial forces exerted on the inner rim of the segmented squeeze film damper;
and
a radial stiffness of the external spring to externally offset a first portion of radial forces exerted on the inner rim segmented squeeze film damper and to permit a second portion of the radial forces to propagate the vibrations from the drive shaft to the inner rim;
and
a first end seal coupled to the segmented squeeze film damper, wherein:
the first end seal comprises a first outlet port fluidly coupled to the first annular gap;
the first outlet port is configured to control outflow rate of the fluid from the first annular gap;
and
the axial stiffness of the external spring is adjusted to facilitate maintaining size of the first outlet port constant during operation of the turbomachine system.

9 more elements

A method of manufacturing a bearing damper assembly configured to be used in a turbomachine system, comprising:

coupling an outer rim of a damper to an inner surface of a housing such that an inlet port formed in the housing is fluidly coupled to an annular gap formed partially along a circumference between the outer rim and an inner rim of the damper, wherein the annular gap is configured to be filled with fluid used to dampen vibrations produced during operation of the turbomachine system;
coupling a first end seal to a first side surface of the inner rim such that a first outlet port formed in the first end seal is fluidly coupled to the annular gap;
coupling a first end of an external spring to the inner surface of the housing;
and
coupling a second end of the external spring to a second side surface of the inner rim, wherein the external spring is configured to facilitate:
tuning axial stiffness of the external spring to substantially offset axial forces exerted on the inner rim to facilitate maintaining size of the first outlet port substantially constant during operation of the turbomachine system;
and
tuning radial stiffness of the external spring relatively independent from the axial stiffness to substantially offset a first portion of radial forces exerted on the inner rim to facilitate maintaining average size of the annular gap substantially constant during operation of the turbomachine system.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/147,706Filed 5 May 2016
Published: 9 Nov 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification22 codes

F16C 27/045
Ball or roller bearings, e.g. with resilient rolling bodies: with a fluid film, e.g. squeeze film damping
F01D 25/164
Bearing supports: flexible supports; Vibration damping means associated with the bearing
F16C 17/26
Sliding-contact bearings for exclusively rotary movement: systems consisting of a plurality of sliding-contact bearings
F16C 27/02
Elastic or yielding bearings or bearing supports, for exclusively rotary movement: sliding-contact bearings