• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.47-55
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• 1996

In this study, steady state and perturbed pressures are experimentally measured under inherently compensated restrictors in externally pressurized air bearings. A piezo actuator is used for simulating small displacement perturbation in the air film. The pressures under the restrictors are measured by a miniature type pressure transducer and the height of the air film is measured by capacitance type gap sensors developed by Chapman's method. The perturbed pressure is obtained through Fourier transformation of the two signals. The measured perturbed pressures are in good agreement with the calculated values.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 한국윤활학회 1998년도 제28회 추계학술대회
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• pp.196-202
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• 1998

Because the journal and bearing surface are fully separated by the oil film during the normal operation, fluid film bearings operating in the hydrodynamic lubrication region are expected to have an infinite life. However, there are many parameters that lead to interfere with the normal operation of the bearing and lead to its failure. In this paper, both the causes and countermeasures of the bearing failure are described. Also, the characteristics of wiped bearing surface are investigated through mechanical and chemical test.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.56-61
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• 1994

The conical bearing can be used to support the radial and thrust load simultaneously. Two circumferential grooves with discrete hole restrictions are made on the bearing surface in order to increase stiffness. In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of this type of bearings are calculated such as stiffness and damping coefficients. As a results of theoretical analysis, it is verified that there exist the groove depth and distance between two grooves which produce the maximum stiffness at the given bearing dimensions.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제35권3호
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• pp.190-198
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• 2019

Gas foil bearings (GFBs) enable small- to medium-sized turbomachinery to operate at ultra-high speeds in a compact design by using ambient air or process gas as a lubricant. When using air or process gas, which have lower viscosity than lubricant oil, the turbomachinery has the advantage of reduced power loss from bearing friction drag. However, GFBs may have high Reynolds number, which causes turbulent flows due to process gas with low viscosity and high density. This paper analyzes gas foil journal bearings (GFJBs) with high Reynolds numbers and studies the effects of turbulent flows on the static and dynamic performance of bearings. For comparison purposes, air and R-134a gas lubricants are applied to the GFJBs. For the air lubricant, turbulence is dominant only at rotor speeds higher than 200 krpm. At those speeds, the journal eccentricity decreases, but the film thickness, power loss, and direct stiffness and damping coefficients increase. On the other hand, the R-134a gas lubricant, which that has much higher density than air, causes dominant turbulence at rotor speeds greater than 10 krpm. The turbulent flow model predicts decreased journal eccentricity but increased film thickness and power loss when compared with the lamina flow model predictions. The vertical direct stiffness and damping coefficients are lower at speeds below 100 krpm, but higher beyond that speeds for the turbulent model. The present results indicate that turbulent flow effects should be considered for accurate performance predictions of GFJBs with high Reynolds number.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.77-85
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• 2014

This study set out to predict the load capacity and rotordynamic coefficients of tilting-pad journal bearings, taking the pivot stiffness into account. The analysis uses rocker-back (cylindrical) and ball in socket (spherical) pivot models, both of which are based on Hertzian contact stress theory. The models ascertain the non-linear elastic deformation of the pivots according to the applied load, pivot geometry, and material properties. At present, the Reynolds equation for an isothermal, isoviscous, and incompressible fluid is used to calculate the film pressure by using the finite-element method, after which the Newton-Raphson method is used to simultaneously find the journal center location, pad angles, and pivot deflections. The bearing analysis, excluding the pivot models, is validated using predictions those are readily available in the literature. As the rotor speed increases, the predicted journal eccentricity and damping coefficients decrease, but the stiffness coefficients increase, as expected. Most importantly, the implementation of the pivot models increases the journal eccentricity but significantly decreases the stiffness and damping coefficients of the tilting-pad journal bearings.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• 제8권6호
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• pp.1424-1430
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• 2013

This paper presents design procedure of the magnetic bearings used for high-speed electric machines and flywheel energy storage systems. Magnetic bearing can be categorized by inner-rotor type and outer-rotor type according to the position of the rotary disc. These two types are applicable based on application environments such as application space, required attraction force, and controllability. Magnetic bearing is generally designed based on the ratio (geometrical coefficient or geometrical efficiency) of pole width to rotor journal radius but proper ratio is only decided by the analysis. This is the difficulty of the magnetic bearing design. In this paper, proper design technology of the inner-rotor type and outer-rotor-type eight pole magnetic bearings is introduced and compared with the FEM analysis results, which verifies the proposed design procedure is suitable to be applied to the design of the magnetic bearings for the industrial applications and flywheel energy storage system.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.131-138
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• 2014

This study investigates the effects of the slopes of the rotational axis and bearing preloads on the natural frequencies and onset speeds of the instability of a rotor supported on gas foil bearings (GFBs). The predictive model for the rotating system consists of a rigid rotor supported on two gas foil journal bearings (GFJBs) and a pair of gas foil thrust bearings (GFTBs). Each GFJB supports approximately half the rotor weight. As the slope of the rotational axis increases from $0^{\circ}$(horizontal rotor operation) to $90^{\circ}$(vertical rotor operation), the applied load on the GFJB owing to the rotor weight decreases. The predictions show that the natural frequency and onset speed of instability decrease significantly with an increase in the slope of the rotational axis. In a parametric study, the nominal radial clearance and preload for the GFJB were changed. In general, a decrease in the nominal radial clearance lead to an increase in the natural frequency and onset speed of instability. For constant assembly clearance, the decrease in the preload changed the natural frequency and onset speed of instability with insignificant improvements in the rotordynamic stability. The present predictions can be used as design guidelines for GFBs for oil-free high-speed rotating machinery with improved rotordynamic performance.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제23권5호
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• pp.219-227
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• 2007

The dynamic performance of air foil bearings relies on a coupling between a thin air film and an elastic foil structure. A number of successful analytical techniques to predict dynamic performance have been developed. However, the evaluation of its dynamic characteristic is still not enough because of the mechanical complexity of the foil structure and strong nonlinear behavior of friction force. This work presents a nonlinear transient analysis method to predict dynamic performance of foil bearings. In this method, time dependent Reynolds equation is used to calculate pressure distribution and a finite element method is used to model the bump foil structure. The analysis is treated with a direct implicit integration technique that can handle nonlinear problems and the stick-slip algorithm is used to consider friction force. Using this method the response to the mass unbalance excitation is investigated for various design parameters and operating conditions. The results of analysis show that foil bearing is very effective on the restriction of vibration at the resonance frequency compared to the rigid surface bearings and the effectiveness depends on the operating conditions, static load and a amount of mass unbalance. In addition, there exist optimum values of friction coefficient, bump foil stiffness and number of circumferential slit with regards to minimizing dynamic response at the resonance frequency. These optimum values are system dependent.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• 제34권9호
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• pp.1161-1166
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• 2010

Tapered roller bearings are core components of rotating machine parts and are simultaneously subjected to axial and radial loads. Life-shortening effect was particularly evident in the case of tapered roller bearings used in the input and output shafts of transmission; this shortening of life was a result of excessive axial pre-load, which is common in the transmission assembly line. In this study, we derived an equation for evaluating the life of tapered roller bearings subjected to excessive pre-load by using accelerated life test data. The DOE(Design Of Experiment) method and FEA(Finite Element Analysis) was used for determining the condition for performing an accelerated life test. This equation for evaluating the service life of the bearings was derived by analyzing the Weibull distribution of the test results. Using the derived equation the life evaluated was 6-7 times longer than that evaluated by the conventional $L_{10}$ bearing-life equation. The results of this study will be helpful in predicting the life of tapered roller bearings subjected to excessive pre-load and in designing reliable rotating machines.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.682-691
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• 2005

This paper describes the design, fabrication, and testing of a microturbine developed at Seoul National University. Here, the term 'microturbine' refers to a radial turbine with a diameter on the order of a centimeter. Such devices can be used to transmit power for various systems. The turbine is designed using a commercial CFD code, and it has a design flow coefficient of 0.238 and work coefficient of 0.542. It has 31 stator blades and 24 rotor blades. A hydrodynamic journal bearing and hydrostatic thrust bearings counteract radial and axial forces on the rotor. The test turbine consists of a stack of five wafers and is fabricated by MEMS technology, using photolithography, DRIE, and bonding processes. The first, second, fourth, and fifth layers contain plumbing, and hydrostatic axial thrust bearings for the turbine. The third wafer contains the turbine's stator, rotor, and hydrodynamic journal bearings. Furthermore, a turbine test facility containing a flow control system and instrumentation has been designed and constructed. In performance tests, a maximum rotation speed of 11,400 rpm and flow rate of 16,000 sccm have been achieved.