Effect of possible rotor deformation on the probability of face contact for a liquid film bearing

The possibility of face contact is examined for a coaxial rotor-stator bearing in dynamic motion constrained by a highly rotating very thin liquid film. A modified Reynolds equation for pressurised flow is coupled to the bearing structure leading to determination of the bearing gap from solving a nonlinear second-order non-autonomous ordinary differential equation. Periodic solutions are found via a mapping solver. Rotor deformation is parametrised by a coning angle and considered a random variable. The method of derived distributions is used to quantify variation in coning angle and examine the probability of rotor-stator contact. Additionally, effects of possible destabilising random aspects on the axial rotor oscillations are investigated. Exact solutions for probability of contact are obtained for various bearing configurations.