• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.177-185
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• 2000

The characteristics of multi-leaf feil bearing are investigated. The Foil bearing is preloaded and has several leaf foils modeled by curved beams. An analysis of the air foil bearing was performed, considering effects of foil deflection and compressible lubrication equation simultaneously. A parametric study shows that the number of foils significantly affect the static characteristics of air foil bearings and describes what the minimum film thickness means. The results include pressure profile, load capacity, dimensionless torque and minimum film thickness in the foil bearing.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.290-296
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• 2001

Lift-off means that the rotating journal surface separates from the leaf surface in an air-lubricated multi-leaf foil journal bearing. Lift-off builds up minimum film thickness which will provide load capacity between leaves and journal. In this paper an analysis of air-lubricated multi-leaf foil journal bearing was performed with effects of multi-leaf foil deflection and compressible lubrication equation simultaneously. Minimum film thickness built up versus journal speed predicts the lift off characteristics and these results will be useful in designing and selecting the proper speed of the air-lubricated multi-leaf foil journal bearing.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.252-259
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• 2006

Air foil bearing supports the rotating journal using hydrodynamic force generated at thin air film. The bearing performances, stiffness, damping coefficient and load capacity, depend on the rotating speed and the performance of the elastic foundation, bump foil. The main focus of this study is to decide the dynamic performance of corrugated bump foil, structural stiffness and Coulomb damping caused by friction between bump foil and top foil/bump foil and housing. Structural stiffness is determined by the bump shape (bump height, pitch and bump thickness), dry-friction, and interacting force filed up to fixed end. So, the change of the characteristics was considered as the parameters change. The air foil bearing specification for analysis follows the general size; diameter 38.1 mm and length 38.1 mm (L/D=1.0). The results show that the stiffness at the fixed end is more than the stiffness at the free end, Coulomb damping is more at the fixed end due to the small displacement, and two dynamic characteristics are dependent on each other.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1135-1141
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• 2006

Air foil bearing supports the rotating journal using hydrodynamic force generated at thin air film. The bearing performance, stiffness, damping coefficient and load capacity, depends on the rotating speed and the performance of the elastic foundation, bump foil. The main focus of this study is to decide the dynamic performance of corrugated bump foil, structural stiffness and Coulomb damping caused by friction between bump foil and top foil/bump foil and housing. Structural stiffness is determined by the bump shape (bump height, pitch and bump thickness), dry-friction, and interacting force filed up to fixed end. So, the change of the characteristics was considered as the parameters change. The air foil bearing specification for analysis follows the general size; diameter 38.1 mm and length 38.1mm (L/D=1.0). The results show that the stiffness at the fixed end is more than the stiffness at the free end, Coulomb damping is more at the fixed end due to the small displacement, and two dynamic characteristics are dependent on each other.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.114-121
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• 2005

As fuel cell system is environmental friendly generator, its performance depends on its air supply system. Because, fuel cell stack generates electrical energy by electron and the electron is generated by reacting between air and hydrogen. So, more and more compressed air is supplied, more and more the energy can be obtained. In this study, turbo-expander supported by air foil bearing is introduced as the air supply system used by fuel cell systems. The turbo-expander is a turbo machine which operates at high speed, so air foil bearings suit its purpose for the bearing elements. Analysis for confirming the stability and endurance is conducted. Based on FDM and Newton-Raphson method, characteristics of air foil bearing, dynamic coefficients, pressure field and load capacity, are obtained. Using the characteristics of air foil bearing, the rotordynamic analysis is performed by finite element method. The analysis (stability analysis and critical speed map) shows that turbo-expander is stability at running speed. After the analysis, the test process and results are presented. The goals of test are running up to 90,000 RPM, flow rate of 150 $m^3/h$ and pressure ratio of 1.15. The test results show that the aerodynamic performance and stability of turbo-expander are satisfied to the primary goals.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.261-266
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• 2003

Foil air bearing, which is a noncontact bearing utilizing viscosity of operating fluid and elastic deformation of foil structure, has several advantages over rolling element bearings in terms of oilless environment, long life, high speed operation, and high temperature application over $500^{\circ}C$ . Recently advanced researches are actively being performed for the application to the extreme temperature such as gas turbines, as well as conventional small turbo machinery. In this paper, the principle of foil air bearing is introduced and a feasibility study to adopt a foil bearing as the turbine bearing of 65 HP turbo shaft engine, which is under development for UAV, is presented.

• 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.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.6 no.1 s.18
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• pp.51-56
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• 2003

The feasibility study on the oil-free turbocharger supported by air foil bearings is investigated. Using the perturbation method, dynamic characteristics of air foil bearings are calculated based on the static equilibrium position of a turbocharger rotor is predicted. With collaboration of calculated stiffness and damping of foil bearing, rotordynamic analysis is performed using the finite element method. The effects of bump compliance and bearing clearance on rotordynamic characteristics of the oil-free turbocharger such as the critical speeds, eccentricity ratio, vibration amplitude and stability are investigated.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.5-10
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• 2011

MTG(Micro turbine generator) operating at 400,000 rpm is under development and the impact test rig to measure the dynamic stiffness and damping coefficient of air foil bearing for high speed rotor is presented in this study. The stiffness and damping coefficient of air foil bearing depending on the rotational speed can be measured easily and effectively by using the simple configuration of impact test rig which is composed of air gun, gap sensors and high speed motor. The estimation results of stiffness and dampling coefficient using least square estimation method is presented as well.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.541-548
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• 2008

To improve the operational stability of the 100 Watts class Micro Gas Turbine, the air foil bearing with additional damping material has been investigated. The key of structure is that a viscoelastic material is coated under the top foil. The compliant foil journal bearing and thrust bearing are designed to withstand high load of vibrations at the operational speed 870,000 rpm. Test is executed in room temperature. Rotor has stably operated above 480,000 rpm. It is over 55% of the designed speed 870,000 rpm. Synchronous and subsynchronous vibrations are both well controlled. Vibration amplitude diminished over 50%. With the help of increased damping resulting from the viscoelasticity, the rotor stability of Micro turbocharger has been improved.