Vibration Analysis Of A Shaft Supported By Two Ball Bearings With Metal Foam Damper

Abstract

In rotating machinery, the adverse consequences of vibration are numerous, and these vibration problems cause the structure to fail. Therefore, the high response amplitudes of rotors should be minimized. The engineers used to add damping devices at bearing locations to decrease the vibration levels and dynamic loads. The objective of this work is to study a new design of a ball bearing with a metal foam damper in order to minimize vibration response amplitudes, transmitted forces, and sound emissions during the passage through resonance. The work consists of three aspects: firstly, we focus mainly on the metal foams and their applications in different industrial sectors; secondly, an experimental study is carried out to determine the dynamic characteristics such as stiffness and damping of aluminum foams; and, finally, a numerical study based on the finite element method of a rotor made of a flexible shaft, a disc, and two ball bearings is achieved to identify the effect of the addition of a metal foam damper on the modal response. The obtained results show that the use of metal foam as damper in a system has a good impact in the rotor vibrations.