Model-Based Control of Active Tilting-Pad Bearings

A promising mechanical bearing candidate for an active operation is the tilting-pad bearing. The proposed active tilting-pad bearing has linear actuators that radially translate each pad/pivot pair. The use of feedback control in determining the actuator forces allows for the automatic, continuous adjustment of the pad position during the operation of the rotating machine. In this paper, we develop a nonlinear dynamic model of the active bearing system. The hydrodynamic force produced by the fluid film is modeled as a nonlinear, squeeze-film damper plus repellent spring. A model-based nonlinear controller is then designed to exponentially regulate the rotor position to the origin. A proof-of-concept experiment shows that the active strategy improves the bearing performance relative to its traditional passive operation. Further, the experiment demonstrates that the model-based nonlinear control regulates the rotor comparably to a linear proportional integral derivative (PID) control, but requires significantly less control energy.