Development and validation of models for fluid dynamic and direct contact bearings

The doctoral path and the corresponding thesis follow the same idea for all bearings tested: every bearing model proposed needs a deeper validation with experimental data. At the same time, reliable data are available from test rigs designed to test specific test cases. From this principle, all the activities of the doctoral program were defined. Different test rigs were instrumented, and various software were used for the bearing’s modeling, but the scientific scheme was always the same: bearing choice and design; novelty definition for each bearing; design and instrumentation of the test rigs; experimental tests; data analysis; model tuning.