• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.76-80
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• 2023

This paper describes an experimental investigation of the effect of cooling flow rate on gas foil thrust bearing (GFTB) performance. In a newly developed GFTB test rig, a non-contact type pneumatic cylinder provides static loads to the test GFTB and a high-speed motor rotates a thrust runner up to the maximum speed of 80 krpm. Force sensor, torque arm connected to another force sensor, and thermocouples measures the applied static load, drag torque, and bearing temperature, respectively, for cooling flow rates of 0, 25, and 50 LPM at static loads of 50, 100, and 150 N. The test GFTB with the outer radius of 31.5 mm has six top foils supported on bump foil structures. During the series of tests, the transient responses of the bearing drag torque and bearing temperature are recorded until the bearing temperature converges with time for each cooling flow rate and static load. The test data show that the converged temperature decreases with increasing cooling flow rate and increases with increasing static load. The drag torque and friction coefficient decrease with increasing cooling flow rate, which may be attributed to the decrease in viscosity and lubricant (air) temperature. These test results suggest that an increase in cooling flow rate improves GFTB performance.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.283-288
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• 2005

This paper presents the theoretical model and analysis results to investigate the effect of Coulomb damping in the sub-structure of a foil bearing. Vertical and horizontal deflection of a bump is restricted by friction of the bump. Equivalent viscous damping of the bump foil is derived from the Coulomb friction. Dynamic equation of the bump is constituted by stiffness and damping terms. The air film is modeled by the compressible Reynolds equation. A perturbation approach and finite difference numerical method 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 the bump friction.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.332-341
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• 2020

High-speed turbomachinery implements gas foil bearings (GFBs) due to their distinctive advantages, such as high efficiency, lesser part count, and lower weight. This paper provides the test results of the static structural stiffnesses and loss factors of bump-type foil thrust bearings with increasing preload and bearing deflection. The focus of the current work is to experimentally quantify variability in structural stiffnesses and loss factors among the four test thrust bearings with identical design values and material of the bump and top foil geometries using the same (open-source) fabrication method. A simple test setup, using a rigidly mounted non-rotating shaft and thrust disk, measures the bearing bump deflections with increasing static loads on the test bearing. The inner and outer diameters of the test bearings are 41 mm and 81 mm, respectively. The loss factor, best-representing energy dissipation in the test bearings, is estimated from the area inside the local hysteresis loop of the load versus the bearing deflection curve. The measurements show that structural stiffnesses and loss factors of the test bearings significantly rely on applied preloads and bearing deflections. Local structural stiffnesses of the test bearings increase with applied preloads but decrease with bearing deflections. Changes of loss factors are less sensitive to applied preloads and bearing deflections compared to those of structural stiffnesses. Up to 35% variability in static load structural stiffnesses is found between bearings, while up to 30% variability in loss factors is found between bearings.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.64-71
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• 1998

In this study deals with measurement of the vibration amplitudes of rotor-bearing system supported by foil bearing were performed experimentally, and the stability of the system were analyzed by using those results. Considering initial operating friction, compare bearing lubricated with only air and bearing surface lubricated with oil. Analyzing the transient data, the understanding of the characteristics fur startup and shutdown of rotor-bearing system are available and the dynamic characteristics of the system also can be analyzed exactly.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.53-62
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• 2022

This study presents experimental measurements of the rotordynamic performance of a motor-driven small turbocompressor supported by gas beam foil journal bearings (GBFJBs) and compares the test results with the predictions of a computational model. The experiments confirmed that the rotational synchronous frequency component dominates the behavior of the overall rotor vibrations, whereas the nonsynchronous components are insignificant, indicating the rotor-bearing system remains stable up to 100 krpm. The undamped natural frequency and imbalanced response of the rotor-bearing system are predicted when integrating the finite element model of the rotor-bearing system with the predictions of the bearing dynamic coefficients. The results are in good agreement with the experimental results. In addition, base excitation test results show that the small turbocompressor can endure large external forces and demonstrate limited rotor amplitudes. A simple single degreeof-freedom rotor model using the nonlinear stiffness of the GBFJBs can effectively predict the test results.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.279-284
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• 2009

The limiting load capacity of air foil thrust bearings at extremely high operating speeds is theoretically investigated. The limiting load capacity of a sector is shown to increase as the angular extent ${\beta}$ and the inlet film thickness $h_1$ of the bearing increase, while it decreases with an increase in the ramp ratio b and the compliance ${\alpha}$ of the bearing. But it is found that the angular extent of the bearing is not related to the total limiting load capacity of the $360^{\circ}$ thrust bearing.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.97-108
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• 2001

This paper describes the development of performance analysis technique for a leaf-type gas lubricated fail bearing. Stiffness coefficient and frictional damping due to the slip between all contacts of leaves are evaluated for various leaf structures. The fluid film thickness and pressure distribution are computed but it is not considered the elastic deformation by film pressure. The analysis results include the effects that the curvature radius and the length of leaf and the friction coefficient have on the static and dynamic characteristics of the foil bearings.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.18-25
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• 2013

Recently the requirement of long-term mobile energy source for mobile robot or small-sized unmanned vehicle is highly increased, and the micro turbine generator(MTG) which is known to have high energy and power density is under development. MTG is designed to have air foil bearing and high speed rotor of which operating speed is 400,000rpm. In the development stage of high speed rotor and bearing, stability analysis for the full operational speed range is essential and the dynamic coefficients such as stiffness and damping coefficients of bearing depending on the rotational speed are required for that. Although perturbation method is usually used to identify the dynamic coefficients, it's not easy to give the perturbation to the high speed rotating rotor. In this study, we present the dynamic coefficients measurement system for air foil bearing which consists of electromagnets, gap sensors, high speed motor and controller. This measurement system can exert the sine sweep force to the rotor-bearing, measure the displacement of rotor and get FRF(Frequency response function) of rotor-bearing. The least square estimation method is applied to identify the dynamic coefficients of bearing from the measured frequency response at the different rpm and the identified dynamic coefficients for the wide rotational speed range are presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.677-684
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• 2004

This paper describes a method for identifying the dynamic characteristics of air foil bearings for high speed turbomachinerys with the LS/IV method. In fact identifying the characteristics of air foil bearings is very difficult work, and it is tried to identify it. Experiments were conducted to determine the structural dynamic and hydrodynamic characteristics of air foil bearings. Numerical predictions compare the static and dynamic force performances. The housing of the bearing on the journal was driven by the impact hammer which were used to simulate impact force acting on air foil bearings. The characteristics of air foil bearings were extracted from the frequency response function (FRF) by LS(Least Square) method and IV(Instrumental Variable) method. The experiment was tested at 0 rpm and $10000\sim16000rpm$. And the test results were introduced about the dynamic characteristics of air foil bearings, and also compared with theoritical results.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.114-122
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• 2019

High-speed rotating machinery requires low cost and reliable bearing elements with low friction, stable rotordynamic characteristics, and a simple design. This study experimentally evaluates the effects of bearing-support elements on the vibrational characteristics of a small-sized, high-speed permanent magnetic motor. A series of coast down tests from 100 krpm characterize the vibrational behaviors, rotor displacement, and housing acceleration of motors supported by ball bearings, ball bearings with a metal mesh damper, and gas foil bearings, respectively. Two eddy-current sensors installed in the horizontal and vertical directions measure the displacement of the rotor at its front nut, and a 3-axis accelerometer attached to the motor housing measures the housing acceleration. The test results reveal that synchronous (1X) vibration components most significantly affect the rotor displacement and housing acceleration, independent of the bearing-support elements. The motor supported by the deep-groove ball bearings results in the largest rotor vibrations increasing with speed; this is due to the absence of a damping mechanism. Additionally, the metal mesh damper effectively reduces the rotor displacement, housing acceleration, and sound-pressure level in the high-speed region (i.e., above 40 krpm), thus implying its substantial damping performance when installed on the outer race of the ball bearing. Lastly, the gas foil bearing supported motor yields the smallest rotor displacement, housing acceleration, and lowest sound-pressure level because of its hydrodynamic airborne operation, which does not require rolling elements that may cause mechanical friction and vibrations.