Feedback-controlled lubrication for reducing the lateral vibration of flexible rotors supported by tilting-pad journal bearings

The feedback-controlled lubrication regime, based on a model-free designed proportional–derivative controller, is experimentally investigated in a flexible rotor mounted on an actively-lubricated tilting-pad journal bearing. With such a lubrication regime, both the resulting pressure distribution over the pads and hence the bearing dynamic properties are dynamically modified. The control strategy is focused on reducing the lateral vibrations of the system around its operational equilibrium within a wide frequency range. To synthesize the proportional–derivative controller gains, an objective function is optimized in the stabilizing gain domain and then chosen from a subdomain imposed by servovalve restrictions. This work demonstrates enhancements of the dynamic response of flexible rotor-bearing systems supported by an active tilting-pad journal bearing by means of the feedback-controlled lubrication regime featured via proportional–derivative controllers.