nonlinear vibrations and stability of aerostatic bearing

Bearings based on aerostatic principle belong to the new machine elements advantageous for low- and high-speed applications, but their dynamic and stability properties are not yet sufficiently known. This paper presents a new elaborated method and gained results of theoretical investigation of dynamic properties of aerostatic bearing in general dimensionless form. It is aimed also as a supporting tool for diagnostic and identification methods used at developing of new bearings proposed by TECHLAB, Prague for industrial applications. Mathematical model expresses nonlinear and evolutive properties in the entire area of bearing clearance, contains sufficient number of free parameters in functions of restoring and damping forces and can therefore describe all types of motions occurring in gas bearings as periodic, quasi-periodic, including beats and instability, which can leads to chaotic and self-excited vibrations. The influence of non-diagonal elements of stiffness and damping matrices of linearized model on the spectral properties and the stability of system is investigated, too.