• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.205-212
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• 2022

This paper presents experimental measurements of the structural characteristics of a two-pad beam-type gas foil journal bearing and its rotordynamic performance for a high-speed motor-driven turbocompressor. The test bearing had two top foils and two beam foils, each with an arc length of ~180°. Each beam foil was etched to obtain 40 beams with six geometries of different lengths and widths. The insertion of beam foils into the bearing housing produces equivalent beam heights. The structural tests of the bearing with a non-rotating journal revealed a smaller bearing clearance and larger structural stiffness for the load-on-pad configuration than for the load-between-pads configuration. Rotordynamic performance measurements during driving tests up to 100 krpm demonstrated synchronous vibrations and subsynchronous vibrations with large amplitudes. The test was repeated after inserting the shim between the top foil and beam foil to reduce the bearing radial clearance. The reduced bearing clearance resulted in a reduction in the peak amplitude of the synchronous vibrations and an increase in the speed at which the peak amplitude occurred. In addition, the onset speed and amplitude of the subsynchronous vibrations were dramatically increased and diminished, respectively. The rotor coast-down tests at 100 krpm show that the reduction in the bearing clearance extends the time to rotor stop, thus implying an improvement in hydrodynamic pressure generation and a reduction in bearing frictional torque.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.267-272
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• 2003

This paper presents a performance analysis model of corrugated bump foil bearings. The analyses for not only 1st generation bump foil journal bearings but also bump foil thrust bearings are performed. Static performances such as load capacity, attitude angle, pressure distribution, foil deflection, and film thickness are accurately estimated by using soft elasto-hydrodynamic analysis technique and finite difference numerical method. Also dynamic performances such as stiffness coefficients and damping coefficients are estimated by perturbation method. The analysis technique may be appliable to rotordynamic analysis, stability analysis, and optimized bearing design.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.475-481
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• 2001

Foil bearings have been successfully used for small high speed rotors, such as ACM(Air Cycle Machine), turbo charger, turbo compressor, high speed motor, etc. Recently advanced researches are concentrated on the high load capacity and the extreme temperature foil bearings to extend the application boundary. Some bearings are already adopted into cryogenic machines and micro gas turbines. In this paper, a foil journal bearing designed for high load capacity, which is under development, is introduced. The bearing is for the turbo refrigerator which has a rotor of 18${\~}$25 kgf rotating at 23,000${\~}$38,000 rpm. This application is well beyond conventional spectrum of foil bearings because the rotor is relatively heavy and the rotational speed is low. Therefore, the development is challenging. The foil bearing is a bump type, the size is 60mm in diameter and 50mm in length, the operating fluid is air and rotational speed is 26,000 rpm. In-house software was developed and used for bearing design. Tested maximum load capacity is 80kgf, 0.62 in terms of load capacity coefficient, and testing is being continued.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.75-83
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• 2018

Microturbomachinery (< 250 kW) using gas foil bearings can function without oil lubricants, simplify rotor-bearing systems, and demonstrate excellent rotordynamic stability at high speeds. State-of-the-art technologies generally use bump foil bearings or leaf foil bearings due to the specific advantages of each of the two types. Although these two types of bearings have been studied extensively, there are very few studies on leaf-bump foil bearings, which are a combination of the two aforementioned bearings. In this work, we illustrate a simple mathematical model of the leaf-bump foil bearing with leaf foils supported on bumps, and predict its static and dynamic performances. The analysis uses the simple elastic model for bumps that was previously developed and verified using experimental data, adds a leaf foil model, and solves the Reynolds equation for isothermal, isoviscous, and ideal gas fluid flow. The model predicts that the drag torques of the leaf-bump foil bearings are not affected significantly by static load and bearing clearance. Due to the preload effect of the leaf foils, rotor spinning, even under null static load, generates significant hydrodynamic pressure with its peak near the trailing edge of each leaf foil. A parametric study reveals that, while the journal eccentricity and minimum film thickness decrease, the drag torque, direct stiffness, and direct damping increase with increasing bump stiffness. The journal attitude angle and cross-coupled stiffness remain nearly constant with increasing bump stiffness. Interestingly, they are significantly smaller compared to the corresponding values obtained for bump foil bearings, thus, implying favorable rotor stability performance.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.378-385
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• 2008

In foil bearings, the friction between bumps and their mating surfaces is the major factor which exerts great influence on the bearing performance. From this point of view, many efforts have been made to improve the understanding of the influence of the friction on the foil bearing performance by developing a number of analytical models. However, most of them did not consider the hysteretic behavior of the foil structure resulting from the friction. The present work developed the static structural model in which hysteretic behavior of the friction was considered. The foil structure was modeled using finite element method and the algorithm which determines the conditions of the contact nodes and the directions of the friction forces was used to take into account the friction. The developed model was integrated into the foil bearing prediction code to investigate the effects of the friction on the static performance of the bearing. The results of analysis show that multiple static equilibrium positions are presented for the one static load under the influence of the friction, inferring its great effects on the dynamic performance. However, the effect of friction on the minimum film thickness which determines load capacity of the bearing is negligible.

• 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.

• 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.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.803-809
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• 2005

This paper presents the theoretical model to investigate the effect of Coulomb damping in the sub-structure of a foil bearing. Foil deflection is restricted by friction of bumps. Equivalent viscous damping of the bump foils is derived from the Coulomb friction. Dynamic equation of the bumps is constituted by stiffness and damping terms. This point give the difference from Heshmat's frictionless and simple compliance bump model. The fluid is modeled with the compressible Reynolds equation. A perturbation approach is used to determine the static and dynamic performance of the bearing from the coupled fluid-structural model. The analysis result shows that the static and dynamic performance is enhanced by bump friction. This analysis technique would be extended to development of a high performance bearing.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.1 s.34
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• pp.47-55
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• 2006

This paper presents the theoretical model to investigate the effect of Coulomb damping in the sub-structure of a foil bearing. Foil deflection is restricted by friction of bumps. Equivalent viscous damping of the bump foils is derived from the Coulomb friction. Dynamic equation of the bumps is constituted by stiffness and damping terms. This point give the difference from Heshmat's frictionless and simple compliance bump model. The fluid is modeled with the compressible Reynolds equation. A perturbation approach is used to determine the static and dynamic performance of the bearing from the coupled fluid-structural model. The analysis result shows that the static and dynamic performance is enhanced by bump friction. This analysis technique would be extended to development of a high performance bearing.