Experimental and Numerical Rotordynamic Analysis of a 1500 KW Turbocharger

Author(s):  
Behzad Zamanian Yazdi ◽  
Dung L. Tran ◽  
Chinmay Deshpande

Abstract Hydraulic turbochargers are used in sea water reverse osmosis or acid gas removal cycles to recover wasted pressure energy, decrease operating cost, and increase the overall process efficiency. This paper presents rotordynamic analysis of a large hydraulic turbocharger developed for the acid gas removal process (1500 KW output power, shaft diameter of 101 mm, and operating speed of 8,000 rpm). The hydraulic turbocharger has significant advantages when compared to a reverse running pump such as high speed, compact hydraulics, seal-less design and process lubricated bearings. Utilizing a hydraulic turbocharger in acid gas removal cycles results in a much smaller footprint and no external lubrication oil skid and support system for mechanical seals. The turbocharger rotor consists of a hydraulic turbine runner directly coupled to a pump impeller in a back-to-back arrangement. The shaft is supported in the middle by a set of rigid-walled process-lubricated journal bearings resulting in an overhung configuration (bearing span = 180 mm, rotor mass = 50 kg). For a large high-speed rotor-bearing system, the bearing load-carrying capacity and rotordynamic stability are crucial to ensure a stable performance and to avoid catastrophic failure. In the presented study, rotordynamic performance of a rotor-bearing system is evaluated analytically and experimentally. An analytical model is developed to simulate the rotordynamic performance of a shaft supported by a set of journal bearings. The analytical model simulates the rotor’s orbit in the time domain by solving the rotor’s equation of motion, and solving the transient Reynold equation for each bearing simultaneously. In addition, the model considers the effect of turbulence. An in-house test loop is developed and used to evaluate the turbocharger’s hydraulic and mechanical performance. The test loop runs on a LabView-based control system. The rotor vibration is measured by a set of eddy-current probes, oriented perpendicular to each other. The simulation results from the analytical model are compared against measured experimental data. Comparison of the simulated waterfall and bode plots with experimental data shows that the simulation results agree with the measured data for the frequency and amplitude of vibration. Moreover, the effect of turbulence on the rotordynamic performance of the hydraulic turbocharger is investigated, and it is shown that the turbulence significantly changes the rotordynamic behavior of the system.

Author(s):  
Pranabesh De Choudhury

Abstract The rotordynamic analysis of a high speed multistage centrifugal compressor supported on radial magnetic bearings, which has been running successfully in the field for 9000 hours to date, is presented. Iterations required to achieve an acceptable rotor configuration using magnetic bearings are discussed. The results of the rotor-bearing system on standard fluid film five shoe tilting pad journal bearings are compared to the dynamics of the rotor on magnetic bearings. Correlation of the observed peak responses with those predicted on magnetic bearings is presented. The actual orbit plots and frequency plots during the coastdown of the rotor-bearing system on auxiliary ball bearings are discussed.


Author(s):  
Stephan Uhkoetter ◽  
Stefan aus der Wiesche ◽  
Michael Kursch ◽  
Christian Beck

The traditional method for hydrodynamic journal bearing analysis usually applies the lubrication theory based on the Reynolds equation and suitable empirical modifications to cover turbulence, heat transfer, and cavitation. In cases of complex bearing geometries for steam and heavy-duty gas turbines this approach has its obvious restrictions in regard to detail flow recirculation, mixing, mass balance, and filling level phenomena. These limitations could be circumvented by applying a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach resting closer to the fundamental physical laws. The present contribution reports about the state of the art of such a fully three-dimensional multiphase-flow CFD approach including cavitation and air entrainment for high-speed turbo-machinery journal bearings. It has been developed and validated using experimental data. Due to the high ambient shear rates in bearings, the multiphase-flow model for journal bearings requires substantial modifications in comparison to common two-phase flow simulations. Based on experimental data, it is found, that particular cavitation phenomena are essential for the understanding of steam and heavy-duty type gas turbine journal bearings.


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Miraskari ◽  
Farzad Hemmati ◽  
Mohamed S. Gadala

To determine the bifurcation types in a rotor-bearing system, it is required to find higher order derivatives of the bearing forces with respect to journal velocity and position. As closed-form expressions for journal bearing force are not generally available, Hopf bifurcation studies of rotor-bearing systems have been limited to simple geometries and cavitation models. To solve this problem, an alternative nonlinear coefficient-based method for representing the bearing force is presented in this study. A flexible rotor-bearing system is presented for which bearing force is modeled with linear and nonlinear dynamic coefficients. The proposed nonlinear coefficient-based model was found to be successful in predicting the bifurcation types of the system as well as predicting the system dynamics and trajectories at spin speeds below and above the threshold speed of instability.


Author(s):  
P. K. Kankar ◽  
Satish C. Sharma ◽  
S. P. Harsha

The vibration response of a rotor bearing system is extremely important in industries and is challenged by their highly non-linear and complex properties. This paper focuses on performance prediction using response surface method (RSM), which is essential to the design of high performance rotor bearing system. Response surface method is utilized to analysis the effects of design and operating parameters on the vibration response of a rotor-bearing system. A test rig of high speed rotor supported on rolling bearings is used. Vibration response of the healthy ball bearing and ball bearings with various faults are obtained and analyzed. Distributed defects are considered as surface waviness of the bearing components. Effects of internal radial clearance and surface waviness of the bearing components and their interaction are analyzed using design of experiment (DOE) and RSM.


Author(s):  
V. Pavelic ◽  
R. S. Amano

In many applications the design operating range of the turbomachinery may be well above the rotor first critical speed which leads to the problem of insuring that the turbomachinery performs with a stable, low-level amplitude of vibration. Under certain conditions of high speed and loading the rotor system can start orbiting in its bearing at a rate which is less than the rotor angular speed, and this phenomena is commonly known as whirling or whipping action. This whipping action may produce additional undesirable dynamic loads on the overall flexible assembly and eventually destroy the rotor. Some of this action is also transient in nature. Whirling is a self-exited vibration caused mainly by the fluid bearings and by the internal friction damping of the rotor. To understand this occurrence, a general dynamic mathematical model was derived considering also the complete viscous characteristic of hydrodynamic journal bearings. The general equations of motions of the system are obtained from Lagrange’s equation of motion. The system kinetic, potential, and dissipation functions are determined based on the generalized coordinates of the system. The journal displacements are related to the overall dynamics of the rotor using deformable bearings. The loads acting at the journals of the shaft are integrated from the fluid film pressure distribution in the journal bearings using mobility method. A unique mathematical model is formulated and solved. This model includes the elastic and inertial properties of the flexible rotor, the elastic, damping and inertial properties of supports and the hydrodynamic characteristics of the journal bearings. The equations of motions result in a system of nonlinear second order differential equations which are solved by using finite difference method. The solution of the equations of motions is used to plot maps of motion of journal centers. A computer program was implemented to aid in the solution of the system of equations and to verify analytical model. The computer program used test data available in literature and the results were compared to be very good. The analytical model and results obtained in this study can be of great help to designers of high speed turbomachinery.


Author(s):  
Thimothy Harold Gonsalves ◽  
Mohan Kumar Garje Channabasappa ◽  
Ramesh Motagondanahalli Rangarasaiah

Author(s):  
Crystal A. Heshmat ◽  
Hooshang Heshmat ◽  
Mark J. Valco ◽  
Kevin C. Radil ◽  
Christopher Della Corte

This paper describes an oil-free, 150 Hp turbocharger that was successfully operated with compliant foil bearings in a range of pitch and roll angles, including vertical operation, thereby demonstrating its viability for aircraft applications. On a gas test stand the turbocharger was operated to 120,000 rpm, under extreme conditions. In addition, the compliant foil bearing-supported turbocharger successfully tolerated shock and vibration of 40 g. Advanced technologies have been applied to the second generation of this turbocharger, shown in Figure 1, including self acting, compliant foil hydrodynamic air bearings with advanced coatings capable, of operation above 815 °C (1500°F). Journal foil bearings with maximum load capacity up to 670 kPa (97 psi) were used in conjunction with thrust foil bearings capable of maximum loads to 570 kPa (83 psi). Bearing component development tests demonstrated 30,000 start stop cycles at 815 °C (1500°F) with a newly developed, solid lubricant coating, KOROLON™. KOROLON™ exhibits a coefficient of friction of less than 0.1 at a wide range of temperatures. Current-designed foil bearings with KOROLON™ have immensely decreased turbolag, allowing acceleration from rest to over 100,000 rpm in less than 2 seconds. Advanced bearing stiffness maintained rotor total axial end-to-end motion within 100 microns (0.004 inch). Total radial static and dynamic motion was controlled within 25 microns (0.001 inch). Development of this high speed turbomachine included bearing and solid lubricant component development tests, rotor-bearing dynamic simulator qualification and gas stand tests of the assembled turbocharger. Gas stand and simulator test results revealed stable bearing temperatures, low rotor vibrations, good shock tolerance and the ability of the rotor bearing system to sustain overspeed conditions beyond 120,000 rpm. This combination of component and integrated rotor-bearing system technology addresses many of the issues associated with application of compliant foil bearings to industrial compressors, blowers, and gas turbine engines, overcoming many of the inherently show-stopping and debilitating features of rolling element bearings, i.e., speed and temperature limitations.


Author(s):  
Deborah A. Wilde ◽  
Luis San Andre´s

Current applications of gas film bearings in high-speed oil-free micro-turbomachinery (<0.4 MW) require calibrated predictive tools to successfully deploy their application to mass-produced systems, for example oil-free turbochargers. The present investigation details the linear rotordynamic analysis of a test rotor supported on externally pressurized gas bearings. Model predictions are compared with the test rotordynamic response determined through comprehensive experiments conducted on a small rotor supported on three lobed hybrid (hydrostatic/hydrodynamic) rigid gas bearings. Predictions for the rotor-bearing system synchronous response to imbalance show good agreement with measurements during rotor coast downs, and manifest a decrease in damping ratio as the level of external pressurization increases. The rotor-bearing eigenvalue analysis forwards natural frequencies in accordance with the measurements, and null damping ratios evidence the threshold speeds of rotordynamic instability. Estimated whirl frequency ratios are typically 50% of rotor speed, thus predicting sub synchronous instabilities at lower rotor speeds than found experimentally when increasing the magnitude of feed pressurization. Rationale asserting the nature of the discrepancies calls for further analysis.


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