Design and experimental verification of the vehicle compressor rotor system with inhomogeneous foil bearings

Author(s):  
Hao Li ◽  
Haipeng Geng

In this paper, the design and experimental verification of the rotor system with gas foil bearings are carried out with a vehicle compressor developed in our laboratory. The designed rotating speed 100,000 rpm with 50 g/s mass flow and 1.8 pressure ratio. The journal foil bearing with inhomogeneous bump foil is designed and tested by a push-pull device to evaluate the structure stiffness of bump foil. The result shows that the stiffness curves of two bearings with the same manufacturing process are not consistent, which indicates the uncertainly in the manufacture of foil bearings and it is necessary to obtain the foil stiffness data by experiment. A multi-disc model is established to simulate the impeller in the finite element model (FEM) for the vehicle compressor is too short to ignore the impeller width. The stiffness and damping coefficients of foil bearings are used to proceed rotordynamic analysis. The vibration experiments indicate that with the operating speed enhancement, the center orbit falls smaller. When the rotating speed increases to about 60,000 rpm, two sub-synchronous frequency occur and remain at 150 and 307 Hz finally. Two radial acceleration peaks appear at 9736 and 25,828 rpm respectively, which are close to the critical speed of damped Campbell diagram. The compressor performance map shows that the pressure ratio of the compressor is slightly lower than the design value due to the eccentricity of the foil bearing, which can be solved by increasing the operating speed. This paper provides some reference value for the design and experiment of vehicle compressor supported by the foil bearings.

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 003685042098705
Author(s):  
Xinran Wang ◽  
Yangli Zhu ◽  
Wen Li ◽  
Dongxu Hu ◽  
Xuehui Zhang ◽  
...  

This paper focuses on the effects of the off-design operation of CAES on the dynamic characteristics of the triple-gear-rotor system. A finite element model of the system is set up with unbalanced excitations, torque load excitations, and backlash which lead to variations of tooth contact status. An experiment is carried out to verify the accuracy of the mathematical model. The results show that when the system is subjected to large-scale torque load lifting at a high rotating speed, it has two stages of relatively strong periodicity when the torque load is light, and of chaotic when the torque load is heavy, with the transition between the two states being relatively quick and violent. The analysis of the three-dimensional acceleration spectrum and the meshing force shows that the variation in the meshing state and the fluctuation of the meshing force is the basic reasons for the variation in the system response with the torque load. In addition, the three rotors in the triple-gear-rotor system studied show a strong similarity in the meshing states and meshing force fluctuations, which result in the similarity in the dynamic responses of the three rotors.


Author(s):  
Hao Li ◽  
Haipeng Geng ◽  
Bo Wang ◽  
Wei Zheng

In this paper, a rotordynamic experiment on a compressor rotor system is presented and the feasibility of gas foil bearings with inhomogeneous bump foils is verified. A push–pull device is designed to obtain the stiffness curve and the nominal clearance of foil bearings. Operating points and dynamic coefficients of the rotor system at each rotating speed are predicted. In rotordynamic analysis, an alternative model of the impeller is proposed and the critical speed is predicted by employing the finite element method, in which the dynamic coefficients of inhomogeneous foil bearings are taken into account. Compared with the experimental result, the accuracy of the prediction for the critical speed is verified to be about 14% error. Two sets of foil bearings with 22 and 41 μm nominal clearance are manufactured and tested. Test results indicate that the vibration amplitude can be greatly reduced by diminishing the bearing clearance. When foil bearings with 22 μm clearance are used, the high-order harmonic frequencies of rotor vibration are significantly inhibited, and the amplitude of the rotating frequency is obviously restricted. Thus, the foil bearing with inhomogeneous bump foils tested in this paper can meet the speed requirement of the compressor when the nominal clearance is set at 22 μm.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 168781401987536
Author(s):  
Wenjie Cheng ◽  
Zhikai Deng ◽  
Ling Xiao ◽  
Bin Zhong ◽  
Wenbo Duan

With a 10-kW, 120,000-r/min, ultra-high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor taken as a prototype, experimental research is conducted on the rotor dynamic behaviours of a three-pad bidirectional gas foil bearing high-speed motor rotor system. Load-carrying properties of the three-pad bidirectional gas foil bearing are analysed, and natural frequencies of conical and parallel whirling modes of the elastically supported rotor are calculated based on an appropriate simplification to the stiffness and damping coefficients of the gas foil bearings. The prototype passes through a 90,000-r/min coast-down experiment. Experiments show that there are violent subsynchronous whirling motions that are evoked by the gas foil bearing–rotor system itself. The cause of shaft orbit drift is analysed, and the corresponding solution is put forward. The theoretical analysis and experimental results can offer a useful reference to the bearing–rotor system design of ultra-high-speed permanent magnet motors and its subsequent dynamic analysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gen Fu ◽  
Alexandrina Untaroiu ◽  
Erik Swanson

Gas foil bearings can operate in extreme conditions such as high temperature and high rotating speed, compared to traditional bearings. They also provide better damping and stability characteristics and have larger tolerance to debris and rotor misalignment. Gas foil bearings have been successfully applied to micro- and small-sized turbomachinery, such as microgas turbine and cryogenic turbo expander. In the last decades, a lot of theoretical and experimental work has been conducted to investigate the properties of gas foil bearings. However, very little work has been done to study the influence of the foil bearing pad configuration. This study proposes a robust approach to analyze the effect of the foil geometry on the performance of a six-pad thrust foil bearing. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for a parallel six-pad thrust foil bearing is created. In order to predict the thermal property, the total energy with viscous dissipation is used. Based on this model, the geometry of the thrust foil bearing is parameterized and analyzed using the design of experiments (DOE) methodology. In this paper, the selected geometry parameters of the foil structure include minimum film thickness, inlet film thickness, the ramp extent on the inner circle, the ramp extent on the outer circle, the arc extent of the pad, and the orientation of the leading edge. The objectives in the sensitivity study are load capacity and maximal temperature. An optimal foil geometry is derived based on the results of the DOE process by using a goal-driven optimization technique to maximize the load capacity and minimize the maximal temperature. The results show that the geometry of the foil structure is a key factor for foil bearing performance. The numerical approach proposed in this study is expected to be useful from the thrust foil bearing design perspective.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 181-189
Author(s):  
Hao Li ◽  
Haipeng Geng ◽  
Hao Lin ◽  
Sheng Feng

Gas foil bearings (GFBs) are widely used in synchronous motors for their splendid performance in high speed. However, its working principle can produce unbalanced magnetic pull (UMP) between stator and rotor inevitably. Based on the rotor transverse vibration, this paper analysis the influence of UMP on the dynamic behavior of the rotor system supported by GFBs. The results show that the UMP accounts for a higher proportion of the exciting force acting on the rotor system at lower speed range. And the UMP declines with the decrease of nominal clearance. It is found that UMP will advance the critical speed of rotor system. According to the simulation results, the rated speed of synchronous motor is set at 90 000 rpm, and the nominal clearance of GFBs is 8 μm. The experimental results show that the rotor system designed in this paper works stably and achieves the predetermined design goal.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Dan Sun ◽  
Xudong Wang ◽  
Chengwei Fei ◽  
Huan Zhao ◽  
Guochen Zhang ◽  
...  

Air-induced force generated in seals is one key factor on the stability of the rotor system. In this paper, a novel negative dislocated seal (NDS) was developed in respect of dislocated bearing theory, to reduce hydrodynamic pressure effect and air-induced force and improve rotor stability as well. A test rig was built to test rotordynamic characteristics and rotor stability of the NDS. The rotordynamic characteristics of seals were investigated based on the unbalanced synchronous excitation method, and seal-rotor system stability was evaluated by the identification method with an electromagnetic bearing exciter. The effects of both rotating speed and inlet/outlet pressure ratio on the rotordynamic characteristics and rotor stability of both NDS and conventional cylindrical labyrinth seal were experimentally investigated. The results show that with the increasing rotating speed, inlet/outlet pressure ratio is promising to reduce the direct stiffness coefficients of seals and the logarithmic decrement rate of seal-rotor system and enhance both cross stiffness and damping coefficient as well. Besides, the developed NDS effectively reduces cross-stiffness coefficients and increases direct damping coefficients and the logarithmic decrement rate of the seal-rotor system, relative to the conventional cylindrical seal. The proposed seal can effectively improve seal stability of turbomachinery.


Author(s):  
Jiale Tian ◽  
Baisong Yang ◽  
Sheng Feng ◽  
Lie Yu ◽  
Jian Zhou

In this study, an ultra-high-speed rotor–gas foil-bearing system is designed and applied to a permanent magnet synchronous motor. Gas foil journal bearings and gas foil thrust bearings are used to provide journal and axial support to the rotor, respectively. The bearings are analyzed theoretically considering the nonlinear deflection of the top foil, and the static and dynamic characteristics are obtained with which the rotor dynamic performances of the tested rotor are calculated using the finite element method. During the experiment, the permanent magnet synchronous motor can operate stably at 94,000 r/min, which demonstrates a great dynamic performance of the gas foil bearings and the stability that it provides to the entire system. The sub-synchronous vibration also occurs when the rotating speed reaches 60,000 r/min and as the speed keeps rising, the amplitude of such vibration increases, which will contribute to the destabilization of the rotor–gas foil-bearing system. Finally, the axial force of the rotor is calculated theoretically as well as measured directly by four micro force sensors mounted in the thrust end cover of the permanent magnet synchronous motor. The experimental results presented in this article are expected to provide a useful guide to the design and analysis of the rotor–gas foil-bearing system and high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor.


2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 628-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ju-ho Song ◽  
Daejong Kim

A new foil gas bearing with spring bumps was constructed, analyzed, and tested. The new foil gas bearing uses a series of compression springs as compliant underlying structures instead of corrugated bump foils. Experiments on the stiffness of the spring bumps show an excellent agreement with an analytical model developed for the spring bumps. Load capacity, structural stiffness, and equivalent viscous damping (and structural loss factor) were measured to demonstrate the feasibility of the new foil bearing. Orbit and coast-down simulations using the calculated stiffness and measured structural loss factor indicate that the damping of underlying structure can suppress the maximum peak at the critical speed very effectively but not the onset of hydrodynamic rotor-bearing instability. However, the damping plays an important role in suppressing the subsynchronous vibrations under limit cycles. The observation is believed to be true with any air foil bearings with different types of elastic foundations.


1974 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Langlois

The assumption of “perfect flexibility” is shown to be self-consistent in an important class of finite-width foil bearing problems. When the membrane equations are written in the “stretched coordinates” of foil bearing theory, the usual edge conditions on the tape result in a statically determinate problem. The tape dynamics couples to the Reynolds lubrication equation through a single force-balance equation which does not entail the elastic strain.


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