Effects of eccentricity and vibration response on high-speed rigid rotor supported by hybrid foil-magnetic bearing

Abstract

A hybrid foil-magnetic bearing (HFMB) consists of an air foil bearing (AFB) and an active magnetic bearing (AMB). The HFMB, inherently proposed as a backup bearing for an AMB, has many advantages, such as good controllability and the ability to exhibit preload sharing with the two types of bearings (i.e., the AFB and AMB) in high-speed turbomachinery. However, because the bearing has a limited clearance, the eccentric position of the rotor affects its stability and the reliability parameters of the AFBs such as the initial preload rub. In this study, a rigid rotor supported by an HFMB was operated at speeds of up to 18 kr/min and was tested using a proportional-derivative control algorithm, in order to reduce the vibration amplitude. In addition, to elucidate the effect of the initial eccentric position of the rotor, the control algorithm was started from the initial position of the rotor (X: from –100 to 100 µm and Y: from –80 to 200 µm) using a constant gain value. When the HFMB was active, the magnetic control force was remarkably effective in reducing the subsynchronous vibration of the rotor supported by the HFMB. Eccentricities of 0.2–0.5 corresponded to appropriate rotor positions for the hybrid bearing, and the corresponding load distribution of the AFB was found to be the optimal one. In addition, the proportional-derivative control gain was not very high. The performance of the bearing could be improved further by controlling the eccentricity. An HFMB was tested experimentally, and it was verified that it is possible to determine the effective load carrying capacity for a specific load distribution of the AFB.