A Thermal Model for a Hybrid Gas Bearing System in Oil-Free Turbochargers

Abstract

Abstract With little drag friction, gas bearings operate at high rotor speed and high temperature and thus enable long operating life along with material damping for mechanical energy dissipation. However, most computational tools for modeling gas bearings are not accessible to bearing manufacturers or potential end-users, and the models are restricted to specific geometries and operating conditions or are missing important features, thus limiting their utility. This paper presents the thermal energy transport in a hybrid gas bearing for oil-free turbochargers with integrated heat and fluid flow models to produce a comprehensive thermo-hydrodynamic analysis predictive tool, and to design and evaluate air-lubricated gas bearings by predictions and experiments. An efficient algorithm couples the solution of the Reynolds equations and the thermal energy transport equations in the film between the rotor and a pad of the hybrid gas bearing, and updates the temperature-dependent viscosity and film thicknesses during the iterative process. The test repeats and averaged for each rotor speed from 2 krpm to 22 krpm at intervals of 2 krpm, for supply pressure varying along 25 psi to 100 psi and predicted film temperature matches well with the measured one. The parameters of interest in this analysis include the gas supply condition, bearing configuration, and the gas properties at high altitudes and high rotation speeds. The parametric study results show the density and kinematic viscosity are the most dominant properties of the gas lubrication for the film temperature.