Patent ID: 8337090

Claim:
A bearing arrangement for radially supporting a rotatable shaft within a gas turbine engine, the bearing arrangement comprising: a bearing having an inner race adapted to be mounted to the shaft and an outer race; a bearing housing adapted to be mounted within a casing of the gas turbine engine; and a bearing support ring radially disposed between the bearing housing and the outer race of the bearing, the ring having a plurality of circumferentially alternating and spaced apart first and second contact pads, the first and second contact pads respectively radially protruding from inner and outer circumferential surfaces of the ring, the first contact pads being circumferentially offset from the second contact pads such as to define flexible portions of the ring therebetween, the flexible portions of the ring having a radial thickness less than that of the ring at respective locations of said first and second contact pads, the flexible portions permitting elastic deflection of the ring in a radial direction between adjacent ones of the first and second pads, wherein a radial gap exists between the first and second contact pads and the outer race of the bearing and the bearing housing, respectively, when the flexible portions of the bearing support are un-deflected, and a plurality of openings extending transversely across the flexible portions of the ring, the openings sized to permit a substantially unrestricted flow of oil between radially inner and outer sides of said ring.