| ISCORMA Sponsors
ISCORMA Sponsor - Bently Pressurized Bearing Company The ISCORMA conference and proceedings were made possible by the very generous personal contributions of Donald E. Bently and Bently Pressurized Bearing Company. Donald Bently is best known as the founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Bently Nevada Corporation and Bently Rotor Dynamics Research Corporation (BRDRC). After more than forty years of success at the helm of Bently Nevada, Don decided to start over again as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bently Pressurized Bearing Company. While Bently Nevada Corporation and the Bently Rotor Dynamics Research Corporation (the ISCORMA-1 sponsor) were focused primarily on the observation and understanding of the behavior of rotating machinery, Bently Pressurized Bearing Company’s new mission is to develop tools that control and improve the operating efficiency of rotating machinery. The most important of these tools is a new bearing development called the externally pressurized bearing. The idea of an externally pressurized bearing (sometimes known as the hydrostatic bearing) is not new as examples of the technology were presented as early as 1878 at the Paris Industrial Exhibition. Unfortunately, early research on fluid bearings concluded that a fully lubricated, pressurized bearing (at pressures below 20 psi or 1.4 bar) would be inherently unstable. This early research led a whole industry of bearing and machinery designers to adopt the convention of designing low-pressure hydrodynamic (internally pressurized) bearings. Early on, it was falsely believed that the only way to control fluid-induced instability was to limit bearing lubrication to avoid the development of a fluid film around the circumference of the bearing. Other bearing designs followed such as the multi-lobe, pressure dam, and tilt-pad. All of these designs have tried to address the problem of fluid induced instability but have been only marginally successful and come with drawbacks that adversely affect the performance of rotating machinery. Donald Bently and Agnes Muszynska’s work on rotor dynamics has led to an elegant solution to the problem of fluid-induced instabilities. By using proximity measurements and the technique of nonsynchronous perturbation, Don and Agnes developed a simplified mathematical model to accurately represent their observations of rotor behavior. These mathematical models included important rotordynamic concepts such as dynamic stiffness (the sum of direct dynamic stiffness and quadrature stiffness) and the term lambda ( λ ) to describe the fluid average circumferential velocity ratio. What the rotor models predict is that the best way to increase the stability margin and shift the threshold of fluid instability to higher operating speed is to increase stiffness and reduce lambda (know also as the swirling ratio). The externally pressurized bearing can be used to both increase stiffness and decrease lambda to improve rotordynamic performance and efficiency. While traditionally bearing designers have focused on the converging-diverging pressure wedge that develops around the circumference of the hydrodynamic bearing, the modern externally pressurized bearing operates by creating an inherently stable axial pressure wedge along the shaft. Stiffness is controlled by adjusting the external pressure of lubricant to the bearing. The pressure gradient directs the flow of lubricant along the axis of the bearing, effectively reducing the value of lambda. Stability analysis by powerful root locus methodology supports the conclusion that this bearing design is extremely effective in improving the rotordynamic performance for a variety of machine designs over a wide range of operating conditions. Donald Bently is a globally recognized authority on rotor dynamics as well as vibration monitoring and diagnostics. He has authored or co-authored more than 140 papers on these subjects, is the holder of two patents, and recently published a comprehensive book titled Fundamentals of Rotating Machinery Diagnostics. A sampling of the recent awards presented to Donald Bently include: Distinguished Service Award from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (2003); Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2002); Induction to the University of Iowa’s Distinguished Engineering Alumni Academy (2001); Co-recipient of the Fredrick P. Smarro Award (2000) and recipient of the R. Tom Sawyer Award (1999) from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Donald Bently is a Registered Professional Engineer in Nevada (#1591) and California (#5242). He is a senior member of IEEE, member of the honorary fraternities Sigma Xi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Tau Beta Pi; he is also a member of the social fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Iowa beta chapter). Mr. Bently received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering (With Distinction) in 1949 followed by a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1950 from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. He has done graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley, and in 1987 was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno. He received an honorary AA Degree from Western Nevada Community College in 1998. Today, Donald Bently’s business interests run far beyond the field of rotordynamics. Among the varied interests in the Bently family of companies is Bently Tribology Services, a company dedicated to machine condition monitoring through the physical and chemical analysis of lubricating oils. Soon, Bently Tribology Services will be offering fuel analysis to support the work of another Bently company, Bently Agrowdynamics, Biofuels division. Bently Agrowdynamics is dedicated to the development of sustainable agricultural practices and will soon be offering diesel and other biofuels manufactured from agricultural and waste products. This method of fuel production by direct conversion of sunlight closes the cycle on CO2 release to the atmosphere and is an environmentally friendly way to reduce the need for petroleum imports. Bently Holdings rounds out the business by investing in and managing a variety of commercial real estate interests under the direction of Don’s son, Christopher. Finally, Don remains dedicated to the field of rotordynamics with the sponsorship of the ISCORMA conference whose sole mission is to share knowledge about rotating machine stability among end users, machinery designers, and academics. While the conference is not designed as a profit making endeavor (the financials are open to anyone who asks), the goal of the conference is to benefit the community of scientists and engineers involved in the business of machine design worldwide. Don welcomes the participation of other private companies or institutions to help sponsor future conferences. Contact him by email.
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