Performance of a Foil-Magnetic Hybrid Bearing

Author(s):  
Erik E. Swanson ◽  
Hooshang Heshmat ◽  
James Walton

To meet the advanced bearing needs of modern turbomachinery, a hybrid foil-magnetic hybrid bearing system was designed, fabricated and tested in a test rig designed to simulate the rotor dynamics of a small gas turbine engine (31 kN to 53 kN thrust class). This oil-free bearing system combines the excellent low and zero-speed capabilities of the magnetic bearing with the high load capacity and high speed performance of the compliant foil bearing. An experimental program is described which documents the capabilities of the bearing system for sharing load during operation at up to 30,000 RPM and the foil bearing component’s ability to function as a back-up in case of magnetic bearing failure. At an operating speed of 22,000 RPM, loads exceeding 5300 N were carried by the system. This load sharing could be manipulated by an especially designed electronic control algorithm. In all tests, rotor excursions were small and stable. During deliberately staged magnetic bearing malfunctions, the foil bearing proved capable of supporting the rotor during continued operation at full load and speed, as well as allowing a safe rotor coast-down. The hybrid system tripled the load capacity of the magnetic bearing alone and can offer a significant reduction in total bearing weight compared to a comparable magnetic bearing.

2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. E. Swanson ◽  
H. Heshmat ◽  
J. Walton ,

To meet the advanced bearing needs of modern turbomachinery, a hybrid foil-magnetic hybrid bearing system was designed, fabricated, and tested in a test rig designed to simulate the rotor dynamics of a small gas turbine engine (31 kN to 53 kN thrust class). This oil-free bearing system combines the excellent low and zero-speed capabilities of the magnetic bearing with the high-load capacity and high-speed performance of the compliant foil bearing. An experimental program is described which documents the capabilities of the bearing system for sharing load during operation at up to 30,000 rpm and the foil bearing component’s ability to function as a backup in case of magnetic bearing failure. At an operating speed of 22,000 rpm, loads exceeding 5300 N were carried by the system. This load sharing could be manipulated by an especially designed electronic control algorithm. In all tests, rotor excursions were small and stable. During deliberately staged magnetic bearing malfunctions, the foil bearing proved capable of supporting the rotor during continued operation at full load and speed, as well as allowing a safe rotor coastdown. The hybrid system tripled the load capacity of the magnetic bearing alone and can offer a significant reduction in total bearing weight compared to a comparable magnetic bearing.


Author(s):  
M. J. Braun ◽  
F. K. Choy ◽  
M. Dzodzo ◽  
J. Hsu ◽  
R. Veillette ◽  
...  

The authors of the present paper envisage far reaching applications of the foil bearing technology when merged with the concept of active control. Thus, this paper proposes and presents a comprehensive procedure for feedback control design for an active foil bearing. Two types of controllers are introduced, and discussed: i) the active feedback control for online adjustment, and ii) the supervisory control for anticipatory event management. A numerical procedure to simulate the steady state and transient dynamics of a foil bearing was also presented. Successful introduction of such a new type of bearing will allow: (a) tolerance and ‘on-line’ adaptation to large time-dependent distortions and misalignment, (b) continuous adjustment for enhanced stability and resilience to high speed rubs, (c) reduced wear and power loss, (d) relative immunity from foreign object damage (FOD), (e) high load capacity due to thicker film lubricant, (f) lighter weight and reduced spatial envelope over active magnetic bearings, and (g) inherent stability without feedback control as compared with the magnetic bearing which has no stable equilibrium without feedback.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enqiong Tang ◽  
Bangcheng Han

The magnetically suspended control moment gyros (MSCMGs) are complex system with multivariable, nonlinear, and strongly gyroscopic coupling. Therefore, its reliability is a key factor to determine whether it can be widely used in spacecraft. Fault-tolerant magnetic bearing systems have been proposed so that the system can operate normally in spite of some faults in the system. However, the conventional magnetic bearing and fault-tolerant control strategies are not suitable for the MSCMGs because of the moving-gimbal effects and requirement of the maximum load capacity after failure. A novel fault-tolerant magnetic bearing system which has low power loss and good robust performances to reject the moving-gimbal effects is presented in this paper. Moreover, its maximum load capacity is unchanged before and after failure. In addition, the compensation filters are designed to improve the bandwidth of the amplifiers so that the nutation stability of the high-speed rotor cannot be affected by the increasing of the coil currents. The experimental results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed fault-tolerant system.


1999 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Heshmat ◽  
H. Ming Chen ◽  
J. F. Walton,

Recent technological advancements make hybridization of the magnetic and foil bearings both possible and extremely attractive. Operation of the foil/magnetic bearing takes advantage of the strengths of each individual bearing while minimizing each other’s weaknesses. In this paper one possible hybrid foil and magnetic bearing arrangement is investigated and sample design and operating parameters are presented. One of the weaknesses of the foil bearings, like any hydrodynamic bearing, is that contact between the foil bearing and the shaft occurs at rest or at very low speeds and it has low load carrying capacity at low speeds. For high speed applications, AMBs are, however, vulnerable to rotor-bending or structural resonances that can easily saturate power amplifiers and make the control system unstable. Since the foil bearing is advantageous for high speed operation with a higher load carrying capacity, and the magnetic bearing is so in low speed range, it is a natural evolution to combine them into a hybrid bearing system thus utilizing the advantages of both. To take full advantage of the foil and magnetic elements comprising a hybrid bearing, it is imperative that the static and dynamic characteristics of each bearing be understood. This paper describes the development of a new analysis technique that was used to evaluate the performance of a class of gas-lubricated journal bearings. Unlike conventional approaches, the solution of the governing hydrodynamic equations dealing with compressible fluid is coupled with the structural resiliency of the bearing surfaces. The distribution of the fluid film thickness and pressures, as well as the shear stresses in a finite-width journal bearing, are computed. Using the Finite Element (FE) method, the membrane effect of an elastic top foil was evaluated and included in the overall analytical procedure. Influence coefficients were generated to address the elasticity effects of combined top foil and elastic foundation on the hydrodynamics of journal bearings, and were used to expedite the numerical solution. The overall program logic proved to be an efficient technique to deal with the complex structural compliance of various foil bearings. Parametric analysis was conducted to establish tabulated data for use in a hybrid foil/magnetic bearing design analysis. A load sharing control algorithm between the foil and magnetic elements is also discussed. [S0742-4795(00)01201-1]


Author(s):  
Hooshang Heshmat ◽  
H. Ming Chen ◽  
James F. Walton

Recent technological advancements make hybridization of the magnetic and foil bearings both possible and extremely attractive. Operation of the foil/magnetic bearing takes advantage of the strengths of each individual bearing while minimizing each others weaknesses. In this paper one possible hybrid foil and magnetic bearing arrangement is investigated and sample design and operating parameters are presented. One of the weaknesses of the foil bearings, like any hydrodynamic bearing, is that contact between the foil bearing and the shaft occurs at rest or at very low speeds and it has low load carrying capacity at low speeds. For high speed applications, AMBs are, however, vulnerable to rotor-bending or structural resonances that can easily saturate power amplifiers and make the control system unstable. Since the foil bearing is advantageous for high speed operation with a higher load carrying capacity, and the magnetic bearing is so in low speed range, it is a natural evolution to combine them into a hybrid bearing system thus utilizing the advantages of both. To take full advantage of the foil and magnetic elements comprising a hybrid bearing, it is imperative that the static and dynamic characteristics of each bearing be understood. This paper describes the development of a new analysis technique that was used to evaluate the performance of a class of gas-lubricated journal bearings. Unlike conventional approaches, the solution of the governing hydrodynamic equations dealing with compressible fluid is coupled with the structural resiliency of the bearing surfaces. The distribution of the fluid film thickness and pressures, as well as the shear stresses in a finite-width journal bearing, are computed. Using the Finite Element (FE) method, the membrane effect of an elastic top foil was evaluated and included in the overall analytical procedure. Influence coefficients were generated to address the elasticity effects of combined top foil and elastic foundation on the hydrodynamics of journal bearings, and were used to expedite the numerical solution. The overall program logic proved to be an efficient technique to deal with the complex structural compliance of various foil bearings. Parametric analysis was conducted to establish tabulated data for use in a hybrid foil/magnetic bearing design analysis. A load sharing control algorithm between the foil and magnetic elements is also discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1760020
Author(s):  
Henrique Linares ◽  
Carlos Frajuca ◽  
Fabio S. Bortoli ◽  
Givanildo A. Santos ◽  
Francisco Y. Nakamoto

This work aims to design a magnetic suspension for an experiment to measure gravitys velocity. Such device must rotate two objects symmetrically with the greatest mass and largest radius as possible, at the speed of [Formula: see text], which means this device falls into the high-speed machines category. The guidelines and solutions proposed in this paper constitute a contribution to this class of engineering problems and were based on an extensive literature search, contacts with experts, the tutors and author’s experience, as well as on experimental results. The main solution proposed is a hybrid bearing that combines a radial passive magnetic bearing with an axial sliding bearing, here called MPS (Magnetic Passive and Sliding) bearing.


Author(s):  
Nguyen LaTray ◽  
Daejong Kim ◽  
Myongsok Song

Abstract This work presents a novel design of a hydrostatic thrust foil bearing (HSTFB) with an outer diameter of 154mm along with simulation and test results up to specific load capacity of 223kPa (32.3psi). The HSTFB incorporates a high pressure air/gas injection to the thrust foil bearing with a uniform clearance. This bearing has high load capacity, low power loss, and no friction/wear during startup and shutdown. In addition, the HSTFB allows for bidirectional operation. The paper also presents an advanced simulation model which adopts the exact locations of a tangentially arranged bumps to a cylindrical two-dimensional plate model of the top foil. This method predicts top foil deflection with better accuracy than the traditional independent elastic foundation model which distributes the bump locations over the nodal points in the cylindrical coordinates, and with less computational resource than the finite element method applied to the entire bump/top foils. The presented HSTFB, was designed for Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) generators, but its performance was predicted and measured using air in this paper. The bearing static performance is compared analytically against the rigid counterpart, and presented at different supply pressures, speeds, and minimum film thicknesses. Experimental verification is conducted at 10, 15 and 20krpm. The measured load capacity and frictional loss agree well with the prediction. The measured film thickness also agrees with the prediction after the structural deflection of the thrust runner disc is compensated. Overall, the novel HSTFB demonstrates an excellent static performance and shows good potential for adoption to the intended ORC generators and other large oil-free turbomachines.


Author(s):  
Daejong Kim ◽  
Brian Nicholson ◽  
Lewis Rosado ◽  
Garry Givan

Foil bearings are one type of hydrodynamic air/gas bearings but with a compliant bearing surface supported by structural material that provides stiffness and damping to the bearing. The hybrid foil bearing (HFB) in this paper is a combination of a traditional hydrodynamic foil bearing with externally-pressurized air/gas supply system to enhance load capacity during the start and to improve thermal stability of the bearing. The HFB is more suitable for relatively large and heavy rotors where rotor weight is comparable to the load capacity of the bearing at full speed and extra air/gas supply system is not a major added cost. With 4,448N∼22,240N thrust class turbine aircraft engines in mind, the test rotor is supported by HFB in one end and duplex rolling element bearings in the other end. This paper presents experimental work on HFB with diameter of 102mm performed at the US Air force Research Laboratory. Experimental works include: measurement of impulse response of the bearing to the external load corresponding to rotor’s lateral acceleration of 5.55g, forced response to external subsynchronous excitation, and high speed imbalance response. A non-linear rotordynamic simulation model was also applied to predict the impulse response and forced subsynchronous response. The simulation results agree well with experimental results. Based on the experimental results and subsequent simulations, an improved HFB design is also suggested for higher impulse load capability up to 10g and rotordynamics stability up to 30,000rpm under subsynchronous excitation.


Author(s):  
Nguyen LaTray ◽  
Daejong Kim

This work presents the theoretical and experimental rotordynamic evaluations of a rotor–air foil bearing (AFB) system supporting a large overhung mass for high-speed application. The proposed system highlights the compact design of a single shaft rotor configuration with turbomachine components arranged on one side of the bearing span. In this work, low-speed tests up to 45 krpm are performed to measure lift-off speed and to check bearing manufacturing quality. Rotordynamic performance at high speeds is evaluated both analytically and experimentally. In the analytical approach, simulated imbalance responses are studied using both rigid and flexible shaft models with bearing forces calculated from the transient Reynolds equation along with the rotor motion. The simulation predicts that the system experiences small synchronous rigid mode vibration at 20 krpm and bending mode at 200 krpm. A high-speed test rig is designed to experimentally evaluate the rotor–air foil bearing system. The high-speed tests are operated up to 160 krpm. The vibration spectrum indicates that the rotor–air foil bearing system operates under stable conditions. The experimental waterfall plots also show very small subsynchronous vibrations with frequency locked to the system natural frequency. Overall, this work demonstrates potential capability of the air foil bearings in supporting a shaft with a large overhung mass at high speed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Tangredi ◽  
Enrico Meli ◽  
Andrea Rindi ◽  
Alessandro Ridolfi ◽  
Pierluca D’Adamio ◽  
...  

Nowadays, the search for increasing performances in turbomachinery applications has led to a growing utilization of active magnetic bearings (AMBs), which can bring a series of advantages thanks to their features: AMBs allow the machine components to reach higher peripheral speeds; in fact there are no wear and lubrication problems as the contact between bearing surfaces is absent. Furthermore, AMBs characteristic parameters can be controlled via software, optimizing machine dynamics performances. However, active magnetic bearings present some peculiarities, as they have lower load capacity than the most commonly used rolling and hydrodynamic bearings, and they need an energy source; for these reasons, in case of AMBs overload or breakdown, an auxiliary bearing system is required to support the rotor during such landing events. During the turbomachine design process, it is fundamental to appropriately choose the auxiliary bearing type and characteristics, because such components have to resist to the rotor impact; so, a supporting design tool based on accurate and efficient models of auxiliary bearings is very useful for the design integration of the Active Magnetic Bearing System into the machine. This paper presents an innovative model to accurately describe the mechanical behavior of a complete rotor-dynamic system composed of a rotor equipped with two auxiliary rolling bearings. The model, developed and experimentally validated in collaboration with Baker Hughes a GE company (providing the test case and the experimental data), is able to reproduce the key physical phenomena experimentally observed; in particular, the most critical phenomenon noted during repeated experimental combined landing tests is the rotor forward whirl, which occurs in case of high friction conditions and greatly influences the whole system behavior. In order to carefully study some special phenomena like rotor coast down on landing bearings (which requires long period of time to evolve and involves many bodies and degrees of freedom) or other particular events like impacts (which occur in a short period of time), a compromise between accuracy of the results and numerical efficiency has been pursued. Some of the elements of the proposed model have been previously introduced in literature; however the present work proposes some new features of interest. For example, the lateral and the axial models have been properly coupled in order to correctly reproduce the effects observed during the experimental tests and a very important system element, the landing bearing compliant suspension, has been properly modelled to more accurately describe its elastic and damping effects on the system. Furthermore, the model is also useful to characterize the frequencies related to the rotor forward whirl motion.


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