Design and Performance Prediction of Hybrid Air Foil Thrust Bearings

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donghyun Lee ◽  
Daejong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Load Capacity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Friction Torque ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Foil Bearings ◽  
Supply Pressure ◽  
Low Speeds ◽  
Land Region

Air foil bearings (AFBs) have been recognized as the most promising for oil-free turbomachinery. However, the applications of AFBs to the relatively large turbomachinery have many technical challenges due to limited load capacity and wear during start/stops. A hybrid air foil bearing (HAFB), which combines the benefits of AFB and hydrostatic air bearing, was introduced earlier by the authors, and the experimental studies showed much larger load capacity at low speeds and much lesser friction torque during start/stop than hydrodynamic counterpart. The benefit of HAFB was recognized through the experimental studies, and the concept of hybrid operation was further developed to thrust air foil bearings. This paper presents novel design features of the hybrid air foil thrust bearing (HAFTB) with radially arranged bump foils and preformed Rayleigh step contour, and presents simulated static and dynamic characteristics of the HAFTB. A 2D thin plate equation in cylindrical coordinate was solved with the finite difference method for the prediction of the top foil deflection. Parametric studies were performed to evaluate the effect of various design parameters on the static and dynamic performances of HAFTB. At low speeds, a design with orifice located at the center of land region showed the highest load capacity, while a design with orifice located near the leading edge of land region showed the highest load capacity at high speeds. Direct and coupled bearing coefficients were also calculated for various operating conditions. The direct stiffness increases with supply pressure but the direct damping decreases with supply pressure. In addition, typical hardening effect of gas film accompanying increase of stiffness and decrease of damping was predicted in high frequency excitations.

Hybrid Air Foil Bearings With External Pressurization

Tribology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daejong Kim ◽  
Soonkuk Park
Keyword(s):  
Load Capacity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Steel Tube ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Drag Torque ◽  
Foil Bearings ◽  
Foil Bearing ◽  
Hybrid Operation ◽  
Lift Off

Foil bearings are widely used for oil-free microturbomachinery. One of the critical technical issues related to reliability of the foil bearings is a coating wear on the top foil and rotor during start/stops. Especially for heavily loaded foil bearings, large start torque requires a large drive motor. Bearing cooling is also mandatory for certain applications because the foil bearings can generate significant amount of heat depending on operating conditions. Usually axial flow is used through the space between the top foil and bearing sleeve. In this paper, a hybrid air foil bearing with external pressurization is introduced. A flexible steel tube is attached to the backside of the top foil with orifice holes, and externally pressurized air is directly supplied to the bearing clearance to lift off the rotor before rotor spins. The hybrid operation eliminates the coating wear during start/stop cycles, reduces drag torque during starts, and eliminates axial flow cooling. The hybrid foil gas bearing was constructed using a multiple compression springs to demonstrate a feasibility of the concept. A simple analytical model to calculate top foil deflection under hydrostatic pressurization has been developed. Predictions via orbit simulations indicate the hybrid air foil bearings can have much higher critical speed and onset speed of instability than hydrodynamic counter part. Measured load capacity was slightly higher than hydrodynamic bearing even under smaller amount of air flow. In addition, the hybrid operation was very effective for bearing cooling even if the cooling flow rate was lower than hydrodynamic counterpart. The measured very small drag torque during the start/stop demonstrates the hybrid foil bearing can have near-infinite life time without wear of the bearing and rotor surface. The experimental studies show high potential of the hybrid air foil bearings for various oil-free turbomachinery, especially for heavily loaded high temperature applications.

scholarly journals Compliant Foil Journal Bearing Performance at Alternate Pressures and Temperatures

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Bruckner ◽  
Bernadette J. Puleo
Keyword(s):  
Journal Bearing ◽  
Load Capacity ◽  
Ambient Pressure ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Test Program ◽  
Foil Bearings ◽  
Current Test ◽  
Foil Bearing ◽  
Development Risk ◽  
Highly Loaded

An experimental test program has been conducted to determine the highly loaded performance of current generation gas foil bearings at alternate pressures and temperature. Typically foil bearing performance has been reported at temperatures relevant to turbomachinery applications but only at an ambient pressure of one atmosphere. This dearth of data at alternate pressures has motivated the current test program. Two facilities were used in the test program, the ambient pressure rig and the high pressure rig. The test program utilized a 35 mm diameter by 27 mm long foil journal bearing having an uncoated Inconel X-750 top foil running against a shaft with a PS304 coated journal. Load capacity tests were conducted at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 21 krpm at temperatures from 25°C to 500°C and at pressures from 0.1 to 2.5 atmospheres. Results show an increase in load capacity with increased ambient pressure and a reduction in load capacity with increased ambient temperature. Below one-half atmosphere of ambient pressure a dramatic loss of load capacity is experienced. Additional lightly loaded foil bearing performance in nitrogen at 25°C and up to 48 atmospheres of ambient pressure has also been reported. In the lightly loaded region of operation the power loss increases for increasing pressure at a fixed load. Knowledge of foil bearing performance at operating conditions found within potential machine applications will reduce program development risk of future foil bearing supported turbomachines.

A Comparison Study on the Performance of Four Types of Oil Lubricated Hydrodynamic Thrust Bearings for Hard Disk Spindles

1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiasheng Zhu ◽  
Kyosuke Ono
Keyword(s):  
Load Capacity ◽  
Dynamic Performance ◽  
Hard Disk ◽  
Friction Torque ◽  
The Other ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Axial Stiffness ◽  
Comparison Study ◽  
Thrust Bearings ◽  
Optimal Values

In this paper, the static and dynamic performance of herringbone, step-pocket, taper-pocket, and taper-flat thrust bearings were numerically analyzed. Optimal values for the design parameters of each type of bearing were analyzed in terms of both maximum axial stiffness (kzz) and maximum ratio of axial stiffness to friction torque (kzz/T) and bearing performance for both cases was calculated. The optimal performance characteristics of these bearings were compared in terms of application to hard disk spindles. Step-pocket and taper-pocket thrust bearings are superior to herringbone and taper-flat thrust bearings with respect to both the maximum kkk and the maximum kzz/T conditions. It was found that the dams of thrust bearings with pockets play an important part in improving the hearing performance. It was made clear that the taper-pocket and the taper-flat thrust bearings have a much larger load capacity than the other two types of thrust bearings in the proximity of zero clearance.

scholarly journals Optimization of Parameters and Operating Modes of Disc Sowing Device According to Seeding Uniformity Criterion

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-388
Author(s):  
Vladimir A. Ovchinnikov ◽  
Mikhail N. Chatkin ◽  
Alena V. Ovchinnikova
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Optimal Parameters ◽  
Plant Growth And Development ◽  
Important Condition ◽  
Operating Modes ◽  
Favorable Conditions ◽  
Uniformity Criterion

Introduction. When cultivating agricultural crops, it is necessary to take into account the plants’ need for moisture, nutrients, location by area of nutrition, determining illumination, etc. Taking into account the biological characteristics of crops, various methods of sowing are used to create favorable conditions for plant growth and development. An important condition for sowing is the uniform arrangement of seeds along the sulcus, especially in the cultivation of testes of small-seeded cultures. A key role in the uniformity of seeding is provided by the design parameters and kinematic operating conditions of the sowing device. Materials and Methods. To determine the optimal parameters and operating modes of the disk sowing device, methods of factor experiment and multi-criteria optimization were used. Results. Mathematical models of the technological process of sowing seeds were obtained based of experimental studies. Conclusions. To ensure the improvement of the seeding quality of small seeds, the design parameters of the experimental seeder: х4 – is the diameter of the cell; х5 – the number of cells on the disk, will tend to the maximum values. The optimum circumferential speed of the sowing disk should be in the range from 0.127 to 0.192 m/s, and the speed of the machine’s movement is no more than 2 m/s.

Design Approach for Large Foil Bearings Considering Rotordynamics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Srikanth Honavara Prasad ◽  
Daejong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Load Capacity ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Radial Clearance ◽  
Support Structure ◽  
Foil Bearings ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Scale Down

In recent years, gas foil bearings have gained increased attention due to potential applications in aerospace systems. Research and development efforts have been focused towards simplifying design and analysis methods or experimentally demonstrating stable bearing performance under various operating conditions. Many researchers have proposed design guidelines for parameters such as load capacity, stiffness, and damping etc., for extending the state of the art based on experimental data available in existing literature. The authors previously presented scaling laws for radial clearance and support structure stiffness of radial foil bearings. In that study, the criteria for selecting radial clearance and support structure stiffness for scale up or scale down of an existing bearing design was presented. In addition, the results from that paper showed that a hydrodynamic film could be sustained for large bearings (up to 300 mm diameter) demonstrating that the bearings would have adequate load capacity. However, the rotordynamic effects for the various bearing sizes were not considered in that study. This paper serves as an extension of the paper on scaling laws by the same authors. The subject of this paper is a four degree of freedom (4-DOF) rotordynamic analysis performed for turbomachinery systems that employ bearings designed using the scaling laws for radial clearance and support structure stiffness. Further, case studies to show feasibility of foil bearings for applications in Mega Watt range turbo blowers and turbo compressors is presented.

scholarly journals Multi-Objective Optimisation of an Aerostatic Pad: Design of Position, Number and Diameter of the Supply Holes

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-360
Author(s):  
F. Colombo ◽  
F. Della Santa ◽  
S. Pieraccini
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Load Capacity ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Objective Functions ◽  
Aerostatic Bearing ◽  
Multiobjective Optimisation ◽  
Damping Coefficients ◽  
Supply Pressure ◽  
Design Variables ◽  
Stiffness And Damping

ABSTRACTIn this paper, a rectangular aerostatic bearing with multiple supply holes is optimised with a multiobjective optimisation approach. The design variables taken into account are the supply holes position, their number and diameter, the supply pressure, while the objective functions are the load capacity, the air consumption and the stiffness and damping coefficients. A genetic algorithm is applied in order to find the Pareto set of solutions. The novelty with respect to other optimisations which can be found in literature is that number and location of the supply holes is completely free and not associated to a pre-defined scheme. A vector x associated with the supply holes location is introduced in the design parameters and given in input to the optimizer.

Imbalance Response of a Rotor Supported by Hybrid Air Foil Bearings

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daejong Kim ◽  
Prajwal Shetty ◽  
Donghyun Lee
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Critical Speed ◽  
Hydrodynamic Instability ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Load Capacity ◽  
Damping Ratio ◽  
Foil Bearings ◽  
Supply Pressure ◽  
Bearing Stiffness ◽  
Frequency Ratios

Air foil bearings (AFB’s) are widely used in small to midsized turbomachinery. They are simple in construction, offer very low drag friction, and have very high reliability at high speed operations. This paper presents experimental imbalance response of a 4.84 kg rigid rotor (operating below bending critical speed) supported by two hybrid air foil bearings with 50 mm in diameter. The concept of “hybrid” in this paper utilizes the hydrostatic augmentation of the load capacity during the start up and shut down. The hybrid air foil bearings were designed with three top foils for enhanced stability. Imbalance responses in cylindrical mode are presented up to 44,000rpm with different supply pressures. As the supply pressure is increased from 2.67 to 4 bar, the bearing stiffness increases slightly, resulting in slightly larger vibration (and reduced damping ratio) during the trans-critical speed operation. Hydrodynamic instability was observed with whirl frequency ratios of about 0.17∼0.2 depending on the supply pressures. Tests were also conducted to investigate the effect of supply pressure on the rotordynamic stability. The test results show that the hybrid operation is very effective to suppress the subsynchronous vibrations at high speeds.

scholarly journals Influence of design parameters and operating conditions on performance indicators of magnetic fluid seals of electric motor shafts

Vestnik IGEU ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 40-47
Author(s):  
A.M. Vlasov ◽  
Yu.B. Kazakov ◽  
V.A. Poletaev
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Magnetic Fluid ◽  
Electric Motor ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Rough Surfaces ◽  
Rotation Frequency ◽  
Friction Torque ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
External Temperature

Magnetic fluid seals (MFS) are beginning to be used to seal rotating shafts in electric motors operating in conditions of high humidity, dust and pollution. Friction torque and heating are the most important operational indicators of MFS depending on the design parameters and operation conditions: rotation frequency, operation time, temperature and clearance (taking into account roughness and waviness). An urgent task is to study the influence of design parameters and operating conditions on the performance indicators of MFS of such electric motor shafts. The modeling of rough surfaces was performed using orthogonal transformations of roughness matrix vectors and a visual representation. The contact area of the magnetic fluid with rough surfaces was determined by mathematical modeling. The experimental studies were performed on a test bench. Wear sleeves and poles made of various steels with different roughness parameters were used. Models of MFS clearances formed by surfaces with different roughness have been obtained. The contact areas of the magnetic fluid with the surfaces of MFS at different roughness values have been determined. Nonlinear dependences and variation limits of the friction torque and MFS temperature on the surface roughness of the poles and sleeves, rotation frequencies of the electric motor, and the external temperature have been obtained. Clearance models allow determining the roughness of MFS surfaces. The developed experimental unit allows carrying out studies on the effect of changes of design parameters and operating conditions on the performance indicators of MFS. At a 5,21 time higher rotation frequency (from 556 to 2897 rpm), the MFS temperature can increase by up to 2 times, the friction torque – by up to 2,2 times. If the temperature rises by 50 оC, the friction torque can drop by up to 3 times. With an increase in the surface roughness from 0,357 to 7,21 μm, the temperature of the MFS can rise by 20 %, and the friction torque by 55 %.

Effect of Operating Conditions on the Elastohydrodynamic Performance of Foil Thrust Bearings for Supercritical CO2 Cycles

2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kan Qin ◽  
Ingo H. Jahn ◽  
Peter A. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Supercritical Co2 ◽  
Load Capacity ◽  
Fluid Phase ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Inertia Force ◽  
Fluid Structure ◽  
Thrust Bearings ◽  
Foil Bearings

In this paper, a quasi-three-dimensional fluid–structure model using computational fluid dynamics for the fluid phase is presented to study the elastohydrodynamic performance of foil thrust bearings for supercritical CO2 cycles. For the simulation of the gas flows within the thin gap, the computational fluid dynamics solver Eilmer is extended, and a new solver is developed to simulate the bump and top foil within foil thrust bearings. These two solvers are linked using a coupling algorithm that maps pressure and deflection at the fluid structure interface. Results are presented for ambient CO2 conditions varying between 0.1 and 4.0 MPa and 300 and 400 K. It is found that the centrifugal inertia force can play a significant impact on the performance of foil thrust bearings with the highly dense CO2 and that the centrifugal inertia forces create unusual radial velocity profiles. In the ramp region of the foil thrust bearings, they generate an additional inflow close to the rotor inner edge, resulting in a higher peak pressure. Contrary to the flat region, the inertia force creates a rapid mass loss through the bearing outer edge, which reduces pressure in this region. This different flow fields alter bearing performance compared to conventional air foil bearings. In addition, the effect of turbulence in load capacity and torque is investigated. This study provides new insight into the flow physics within foil bearings operating with dense gases and for the selection of optimal operating condition to suit CO2 foil bearings.

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