Magneto-aerostatic bearing for miniature air turbine

Abstract

Under the circumstance of pursuing high speed and miniaturization, mini-type air turbines have been widely applied to high-speed dental handpieces in recent years. Among all the components of a mini-type air turbine, bearing is the most important part which significantly affects its efficiency. Friction, collision, and wear are the main causes to make the ball bearing unable to reach higher efficiency. Though very small sliding friction can be realized by the aerostatic bearing, its poor bearing capacity limits the application. This research combines the magnetic and aerostatic levitation principle to develop a magneto-aerostatic hybrid bearing for miniature air turbine. The aerostatic bearing undertakes the main function of the radial and the axial bearings. However, the air bearing also possesses a drawback, which is pneumatic hammer effect induced by the air compressibility. In order to eliminate the pneumatic instability, an axial passive magnetic bearing is integrated into the aerostatic bearing. With the magnetic bearing, not only the bearing capacity can be improved, but also the pneumatic hammer effect can be significantly damped. Both theoretical calculation and finite element method (FEM) are used to study the cause and elimination solution of the pneumatic instability. Through experimental testing, the performance of our developed magneto-aerostatic bearing is also verified. The magneto-aerostatic bearing suppresses the axial vibration over 57%, and also enhances its axial bearing capacity by 50%.