• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.117-124
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• 2021

In this study, we perform a 3D CFD conjugate analysis according to the shape of the foil ramp of the air foil thrust bearing, analyze the flow characteristics inside the bearing, and compare the results corresponding to the two shapes. Air has a lower viscosity than lubricating oil. Therefore, the thrust runner of the bearing must rotate at high speed to support the load. The gap between thrust runner and foil is significantly smaller than that of the oil bearing. Hence, it is crucial to analyze the complex flow characteristics inside the bearing to predict the complex flow inside the bearing and performance of the bearing. In addition, flow characteristics may appear differently depending on the ramp shape of the bearing foil, which may affect bearing performance. In this study, we numerically analyze the main flow path of air flowing into the bearing and the secondary flow path used for cooling the bearing using the commercial CFD software ANSYS CFX and compare the flow characteristics for straight and curved foil ramp shapes. Notably, there is a difference in the speed of the flowing air according to the shape of the ramp, which affects the bearing performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.145-150
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• 2000

Out-of-sphericity is degree of deformation of an air bearing sphere deviated from a perfect sphere. This paper investigates numerically the effect of out-of-sphericity error on the radial stiffness of an air bearing Three types of out-of-sphericity modes are considered. in this study the stiffness is calculated from pressure distribution at the bearing surface which is obtained by solving th Reynolds equation. in some cases large out-of-sphericity errors are found to improve the stiffnesses of air bearings. This implies that an air bearing of perfect hemispheres is not necessarily of the best performance. Thus much labor and cost in manufacturing air bearings can be saved, In addition the radial stiffness of an air bearing depends greatly on the application direction.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.47-55
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• 2008

Turbocharger has a main purpose on recycling of the exhaust gas from the engine cylinder. On the basis of the facility characteristics, the turbocharger supported on floating ring bearings has some problems such as the large volume, oil supplement for lubrication and high power loss due to high operating torque. The air foil bearing has been studied as the bearing element to be able to alternate the floating ring bearing without the problems of the floating ring bearing. In this study, the air foil bearing has 2 parts; journal and thrust bearings, and the test facility consists of the engine, exhaust and intake parts. In addiction, the specification of the turbocharger follows a small turbocharger for SUV engine. The engine speed is varied from 750 (idle rpm) to 2,500 rpm and then, the rotating speed of the turbocharger rotor is accelerated from 0 to 100,000 rpm. From those experiments, the comparison between the performances of the air foil bearing and floating ring bearing is conducted and the results show that the air foil bearing has less power loss, maximum 770 watt, than the floating ring bearing, maximum 5,110 watt. This result verifies that the air foil bearing is more efficient and able to output more power under the same condition of the input power.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2001

A new bearing concept, the wave journal bearing, has been developed to improve the static and dynamic performances of an air-lubricated hydrodynamic journal bearing. This concept features waves on bearing surface. In this study, we present the solution of the compressible Reynolds equation valid for arbitrary Knudsen numbers. Straight wave journal bearing is investigated numerically. The performances of straight wave bearing are compared to the plain journal bearing over relatively wide range of bearing number and eccentricity. The wave journal bearing offers better stability than the plain journal bearing under all bearing numbers covered in this study. The bearing load and stability characteristics are dependent on the geometric parameters such as the amplitude and the starting point of the wave relative to the applied load. Under the condition of Knudsen number＞0.01, we can not ignore the effect of slip for Journal bearing.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.156-161
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• 1999

new bearing concept, the wave journal bearing, has been developed to improve the static and dynamic performances of an air-lubricated hydrodynamic journal bearing. This concept features waves on bearing surface. In this study, we present the solution of the compressible Reynolds equation valid for arbitrary Knudsen numbers. Straight wave journal bearing is investigated numerically. The performances of straight wave bearing are compared to the plain journal bearing over relatively wide range of bearing number and eccentricity. The wave journal bearing offers better stability than the plain journal bearing under a13 bearing numbers covered in this study. The bearing load and stability characteristics are dependent on the geometric parameters such as the amplitude and the starting point of the wave relative to the applied load. Under the condition of Knudsen number)0.01, we can not ignore the effect of slip for journal bearing.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.197-203
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• 2004

As the rotational speed and the track density are increased, the vibration of disk/spindle system becomes critical issue in order to reduce the track mis-registration. In this work, we propose a simple inclined air bearing (20${\times}$20 mm) system which is located very near to the rotating poly-carbonate disk, and investigate suppressing effect for the disk vibration mode (0,0) both experimentally and numerically. We find dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of air bearing and then apply those values to the disk vibration analysis. Numerical results show about 10 percent difference comparing to the experimental results. Also we investigate the reduction of disk vibration and power consumption with two different kinds of inclined bearing for the normal disk drive system experimentally. We find inclined air bearing can reduce about 30 percents of the transverse disk vibration.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.6 s.177
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• pp.1520-1528
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• 2000

This study presents a method for determining bearing stiffness and damping coefficients of air-lubricated slider bearing, and shows influences of air-bearing surface geometry(recess depth, crown an d pivot location) on flying attitude and dynamic characteristics. To derive the dynamic lubrication equation, the perturbation method is applied to the generalized lubrication equation which based on linearized Boltzmann equation. The generalized lubrication equation and the dynamic lubrication equation are converted to a control volume formulation, and then, the static and dynamic pressure distributions are calculated by finite difference method. The recess depth and crown of the slider show significantly influence on flying attitude and dynamic characteristics comparing with those of pivot location.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2001

The influence of aerated oil on a high-speed journal bearing is examined by classical thermohydrodynamic lubrication theory coupled with analytical models for viscosity and density of air-oil mixture in fluid-film bearing. Convection to the walls and mixing with supply oil and re-circulating oil are considered. With changing eccentricity ratio, it is investigated the effects of air bubbles on the performance of a high-speed plain journal bearing. Just at the moderate eccentricity ratios, even if the involved aeration levels are not so severe and the entrained air bubble sizes are not so small, it is found that the bearing load and friction force may be changed so visibly for the high speed bearing operation.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.62-67
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• 2008

This study aims to investigate numerically the static stiffness characteristics of porous air bearing and to estimate appropriate permeability values of porous medium. In particular, a new roughness model is proposed and implemented into the commercial CFD code (FLUENT Ver. 6.2) by using C language based user subroutine. The predicted results are extensively compared with experimental data. The roughness model is also validated through comparison with the results from open literature. It is found that the predictions for static stiffness are in good agreement with experimental data. Therefore, the suggested model based on the roughness Reynolds number can be used in studying the stiffness characteristics of porous air bearing effectively. In addition, numerical simulations of various diameter size and conditions are conducted. According the results, it is expected that the static stiffness of porous air bearing has the non-linear characteristics.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2000

A slot restrictor air journal bearing has high load capacity and high stiffness. The stability characteristics of the slot restrictor air journal bearing are studied theoretically and experimentally to forecast and to prevent the whirl instability. As for the high speed rotating machinery, the instability called'whirl'occurs when the rotor rotates at a speed more than twice the resonant speed. Once the whirl occurs, rubbing contact between the journal and the bearing occurs mostly and the bearing-rotor system is destroyed ultimately. Therefore, the forecasting and prevention of the occurrence of whirl instability is a very important subject especially to develop highly efficient high speed rotating machinery. The bearing with the slot restrictor that varies about circumferential direction is used for the purpose of the prevention of whirl instability.