Hydrodynamic Lubrication of Elastic Foil Gas Bearing Using Over Relaxation Iteration Method and Non-Dimensional Equation

Abstract

A new type of foil bearings with a specific surface microstructure is studied. First, relevant boundary conditions based on the assumption of rarefied gas flow are proposed, then, the static bearing capacity and friction torque are analyzed in the framework of a numerical technique based on the discretization of the governing equation for rarefied gas-dynamics. It is shown that under the same static load, the difference between the minimum film thickness calculated in this exploration and the results provided by dedicated tests is not obvious; with an increase in the load, the simulation results are closer to the test values; when the bearing rotor speed is 60000r/min, the bearing capacity of the new foil bearing with different foil groove depth is reduced by the effect of the boundary slip. With an increase in the depth of the grooves on the surface of the foil, the influence of the boundary slip effect increases; when the eccentricity of the bearing increases, the gas pressure generated increases and the bearing capacity increases.