2-FSI Analysis of an Air Foil Thrust Bearing of Air Compressor for a Hydrogen Electric Car

Author(s):  
Hyun Jang Shin ◽  
Gun Woong Park
Author(s):  
Yu Guo ◽  
Yu Hou ◽  
Qi Zhao ◽  
Xionghao Ren ◽  
Shuangtao Chen ◽  
...  

Foil bearing is considered to be a promising supporting technology in high-speed centrifugal machinery. Due to the high-speed shearing effect in the viscous lubricant film, heat generation could not be ignored. In this paper, a thermo-elastic model of the multi-leaf foil thrust bearing is proposed to predict its thermal and static characteristics. In the model, modified Reynolds equation, energy equation, and Kirchhoff equation are solved in a coupling way. The contact area between the foil and welding plate is taken into account. Besides, the effect of cooling air on the bearing temperature is investigated. The ultimate load capacity and transient overload failure process of the bearing is analyzed and discussed. The effect of rotation speed on the bearing temperature is more obvious than that of the bearing load. The bearing temperature drops obviously by introducing the cooling air, and the cooling effect is improved with the supply pressure. The transient overload failure of the bearing occurs when the bearing load exceeds the ultimate value.


Author(s):  
Jiajia Yan ◽  
Guanghui Zhang ◽  
Zhansheng Liu ◽  
Fan Yang

A modified Reynolds equation for bump type gas foil thrust bearing was established with consideration of the gas rarefaction coefficient. Under rarefied gas lubrication, the Knudsen number which was affected by the film thickness and pressure was introduced to the Reynolds equation. The coupled modified Reynolds and lubricating film thickness equations were solved using Newton-Raphson Iterative Method and Finite Difference Method. By calculating the load capacity for increasing rotor speeds, the lift-off speed under certain static load was obtained. Parametric studies for a series of structural parameters and assembled clearances were carried out for bearing optimization design. The results indicate that with gas rarefaction effect, the axial load capacity would be decreased, and the lift-off speed would be improved. The rarefied gas has a more remarkable impact under a lower rotating speed and a smaller foil compliance coefficient. When the assembled clearance of the thrust bearing rotor system lies in a small value, the lift-off speed increases dramatically as the assembled clearance decreases further. Therefore, the axial clearance should be controlled carefully in assembling the foil thrust bearing. It’s worth noting that the linear uniform bump foil stiffness model is not exact for large foil compliance ∼0.5, especially for lift-off speed analysis, due to ignoring the interaction between bumps and bending stiffness of the foil.


Author(s):  
Thomas E. Russell ◽  
Crystal Heshmat ◽  
Dennis Locke

A novel, high-speed, high temperature, oil-free, foil thrust bearing test rig has been developed with a critical element being a double-acting, active magnetic thrust bearing. The magnetic thrust bearing is used to react against loads applied to the foil thrust bearing under test. The magnetic bearing has the capability of reacting against thrust loads of up to 2224 N (500 pounds) at speeds to 80,000 rpm, while the rotor is supported by foil journal bearings. Two issues that are especially challenging for this test rig are magnetic material selection and the electronic control system. The magnetic material selection is critical due to the high centrifugal stresses that occur at 80,000 rpm. The electronic control system must handle the non-linear variation in stiffness and damping that is seen by the magnetic thrust bearing as the foil thrust bearing is loaded, as well as maintain rotor system stability as the foil bearing is purposefully overloaded to the point of failure to discover maximum load and performance capabilities. This paper describes the design of the active magnetic thrust bearing, the material selection process, and the development of a digital signal processor based control system. Typical experimental data obtained during operation of the test rig will also be presented.


2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelrasoul M. Gad

Purpose Compliant foil thrust bearings are promising bearings for high-speed oil-free turbomachinery. However, most previous experimental and numerical approaches to investigate the performance of these bearings have ignored the effect of bearing runner misalignment. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the effects of static and dynamic angular misalignments of the bearing runner on the performance of a gas-lubricated foil thrust bearing. Design/methodology/approach The bearing runner is allowed a maximum angular misalignment that produces a minimum gas film thickness as low as 20 per cent of the nominal clearance. Then, the variations of bearing load carrying capacity, viscous power loss and stiffness and damping coefficients of the gas film with runner misalignment are thoroughly analyzed. The flow in the gas film is modeled with compressible Reynolds equation along with the Couette approximation technique, and the deformation of the compliant bearing is calculated with a robust analytical model. Small perturbations method is used to calculate the force and moment dynamic coefficients of the gas film. Findings The results show that misaligned foil thrust bearings are capable of developing a restoring moment sufficient enough to withstand the imposed misalignments. Furthermore, the enhanced hydrodynamic effect ensures a stable operation of the misaligned bearing, and the results highlighted the role of the compliant bearing structure to maintain foil bearing prominent features even at misaligned conditions. Originality/value The value of this study is the evaluation of the effects of runner angular misalignments on the static and dynamic characteristics of Generation II bump-type foil thrust bearing.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 1210-1220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quan ZHOU ◽  
Yu HOU ◽  
Rugang CHEN ◽  
Shuangtao CHEN ◽  
Chunzheng CHEN

Author(s):  
Jason Wilkes ◽  
Ryan Cater ◽  
Erik Swanson ◽  
Kevin Passmore ◽  
Jerry Brady

Abstract This paper will show the influence of ambient pressure on the thrust capacity of bump-foil and spiral-groove gas thrust bearings. The bearings were operating in nitrogen at various pressures up to 69 bar, and were tested to failure. Failure was detected at various pressures by incrementally increasing the thrust load applied to the thrust bearing until the bearing was no longer thermally stable, or until contact was observed by a temperature spike measured by thermocouples within the bearing. These tests were performed on a novel thrust bearing test rig that was developed to allow thrust testing at pressures up to 207 bar cavity pressure at 260°C while rotating at speeds up to 120,000 rpm. The test rig floats on hydrostatic air bearings to allow for the direct measurement of applied thrust load through linkages that connect the stationary thrust loader to the rotor housing. Test results on a 65 mm (2.56 in) bump-foil thrust bearing at 100 krpm show a marked increase in load capacity with gas density, which has not previously been shown experimentally. Results also show that the load capacity of a similarly sized spiral-groove thrust bearing are relatively insensitive to pressure, and supported an order-of-magnitude less load than that observed for the bump-foil thrust bearing. These results are compared with analytical predictions, which agree reasonably with the experimental results. Predicted power loss is also presented for the bump-foil bearing; however, measured power loss was substantially higher.


2011 ◽  
Vol 368-373 ◽  
pp. 1392-1395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quan Zhou ◽  
Yu Hou ◽  
Ru Gang Chen

Because of the low power loss and high stability, foil bearings are suitable lubrication components for high speed rotational systems. At present, the foil bearings used in actual applications almost have complicated structure and are hard to manufacture. In this paper, two kinds of foil thrust bearings with simple structure are presented. Configurations of these two foil thrust bearings are introduced; meanwhile, the load capacity and running stability are also tested in a high speed micro turbine. It is shown that viscoelastic supported foil thrust bearing has higher load capacity and hemisphere convex dots supported foil thrust bearing is more stable in high speed operational condition.


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