Compliant Foil Bearings Research Articles

공기 포일 베어링으로 지지되는 터보 압축기의 공력 불안정성이 로터에 미치는 진동 영향

An oil-free turbo-compressor supported by compliant foil bearings which remove oil-contamination by elimination of a conventional ball bearing and oil lubrication systems is presented. Turbo-compressor makes two individual air compressions with two impellers at a operating speed of 39,000 rpm. In this study, the rotordynamic effects caused by aerodynamic instability were investigated with variable mass flow rates. Correlations between frequencies of pressure fluctuation in two diffusers and those of excitation forces on rotor were clearly observed in an aerodynamic unsteady region. Thus, these results show that it is beneficial to design high-speed rotating turbomachinery by considering coupling effect between aerodynamic instability and rotordynamic force.

Performance of a Foil-Magnetic Hybrid Bearing

Abstract To meet the advanced bearing needs of modern turbomachinery, a hybrid foil-magnetic hybrid bearing system was designed, fabricated, and tested in a test rig designed to simulate the rotor dynamics of a small gas turbine engine (31 kN to 53 kN thrust class). This oil-free bearing system combines the excellent low and zero-speed capabilities of the magnetic bearing with the high-load capacity and high-speed performance of the compliant foil bearing. An experimental program is described which documents the capabilities of the bearing system for sharing load during operation at up to 30,000 rpm and the foil bearing component’s ability to function as a backup in case of magnetic bearing failure. At an operating speed of 22,000 rpm, loads exceeding 5300 N were carried by the system. This load sharing could be manipulated by an especially designed electronic control algorithm. In all tests, rotor excursions were small and stable. During deliberately staged magnetic bearing malfunctions, the foil bearing proved capable of supporting the rotor during continued operation at full load and speed, as well as allowing a safe rotor coastdown. The hybrid system tripled the load capacity of the magnetic bearing alone and can offer a significant reduction in total bearing weight compared to a comparable magnetic bearing.

Performance of a Complaint Foil Seal in a Small Gas Turbine Engine Simulator Employing a Hybrid Foil/Ball Bearing Support System

Operation of a non-contact compliant gas foil seal (CFS) in a high temperature hybrid dynamic simulator representative of a small gas turbine engine spool is discussed. At the hot section of the simulator two oil-free components, a CFS and a compliant foil bearing (CFB) were mounted and at the cold (compressor) section of the simulator, an oil-mist lubricated ball bearing was installed. The preliminary numerical study on the fluid flow and thermal analysis of a CFS was discussed in the previous work by the authors. The experimental results for successful operation of the foil bearing and foil seal at temperatures up to 560 °C and speeds up to 55,000 rpm are presented. The surface of the CFS and CFB journals for high temperature tests were coated with PS304 solid lubricant film, developed by NASA The CFS performance at different operating speeds and temperatures and differential pressures was investigated. In a similar test, a leakage flow comparison was made among a labyrinth seal, a brush seal and a CFS. The experimental results indicate superior performance of the CFS over the two other types of seals. Unlike brush seal, CFS showed no evidence of rub or induced wear on the journal or seal surface. Presented at the 56th Annual Meeting Orlando, Florida May 20–24, 2001

Thermal Features of Compliant Foil Bearings—Theory and Experiments

The paper presents an analytical and experimental investigation aimed at eliciting the thermal characteristics of air lubricated compliant foil bearings. A Couette Approximation to the energy equation is used in conjunction with the compressible Reynolds equation to obtain a theoretical temperature distribution in the air used as a lubricant. The effect of temperature on the thermal properties of the working fluid is included. In parallel, an experimental program was run on a 100 mm diameter foil bearing operating at speeds up to 30,000 rpm employing cooling air across the bearing. The temperature rise of the cooling air provided an indication of the amount of heat energy conducted across the top foil of the bearing from the hydrodynamic film. The temperatures resulted from some tests are compared with the temperatures predicted by the analysis, and maximum over-prediction of about 19 percent was obtained. This simplified approach provides us with reasonably predicted temperatures. By comparing the theoretical heat dissipation obtained from the analytical predicted temperatures with the amount of heat carried away by the cooling air it was possible to arrive at the relative quantities of heat transferred from the bearing by convection via side leakage and by conduction via the top foil. From these comparisons it was deduced that about an average of 80 percent of the heat energy is carried away by conduction. The transient temperatures of the foil bearing in conducted tests for various speeds and loads are also presented.

Structural Stiffness and Coulomb Damping in Compliant Foil Journal Bearings: Theoretical Considerations

Compliant foil bearings operate on either gas or liquid, which makes them very attractive for use in extreme environments such as in high-temperature aircraft turbine engines and cryogenic turbopumps. However, a lack of analytical models to predict the dynamic characteristics of foil bearings forces the bearing designer to rely on prototype testing, which is time-consuming and expensive. In this paper, the authors present a theoretical model to predict the structural stiffness and damping coefficients of the bump foil strip in a journal bearing or damper. Stiffness is calculated based on the perturbation of the journal center with respect to its static equilibrium position. The equivalent viscous damping coefficients are determined based on the area of a closed hysteresis loop of the journal center motion. The authors found, theoretically, that the energy dissipated from this loop was mostly contributed by the frictional motion between contact surfaces. In addition, the source and mechanism of the nonline...

Dynamic Structural Properties of Compliant Foil Thrust Bearings—Comparison Between Experimental and Theoretical Results

This paper describes an experimental investigation into the dynamic characteristics of corrugated foil (bump foil) strips used in compliant surface foil thrust bearings. This study provided the first opportunity to quantify the dynamic structural stiffness and equivalent damping coefficients of bump foil strips for a wide range of operating conditions. The experimental data were compared to results obtained by a theoretical model developed earlier. The effects of bearing design parameters, such as static loads, dynamic displacement amplitudes, bump configurations, pivot locations, surface coatings, and lubricant were also evaluated. An understanding of the dynamic characteristics of bump foil strips resulting from this work offers designers a means for enhancing the design of high-performance compliant foil bearings.

Compliant Foil Bearing Structural Stiffness Analysis—Part II: Experimental Investigation

This paper describes the second part of an investigation into the mechanism of deformation of the corrugated foil (bump foil) strips used in compliant surface foil bearings. In the earlier work, a theoretical model was developed to predict the structural characteristics of bump foil strips under various loads, including the effects of the friction forces between the compliant elements, local interaction forces, load distribution profiles, and bump configurations. In the experiments described here in, two-dimensional deflections of bump foils were recorded via an optical tracking system for a wide range of operating conditions to verify the feasibility of the theoretical model. Test results corroborate the theoretical model for the linear regions of load and the deflection parameters. The effects of the bearing design parameters, such as bump configuration, load profile, and surface coating and lubricant, on the structural characteristics of the bump foil strip were investigated. In addition, the source and mechanism of nonlinear behavior of the bump foil strips under light load conditions were examined, and more effective methods of achieving both Coulomb damping and optimum structural compliance were investigated. An understanding of the analytical and semi-empirical relations resulting from this work offers designers the potential for enhancing the design of high-performance compliant foil bearings.

Compliant Foil Bearing Structural Stiffness Analysis: Part I—Theoretical Model Including Strip and Variable Bump Foil Geometry

This paper presents a theoretical model of corrugated foil strip (bump foil) deformation in compliant foil bearings and dampers. The friction forces between bump foils and the housing or the top foil, local interaction forces, variable load distributions, and bump geometries are taken into consideration. Following the trend of earlier published experimental data, the bumps near the fixed end have a much higher predicted stiffness (lower deflection) than those near the free end. Higher friction coefficients tend to increase stiffness and may pin down bumps near the fixed end. An increase in the friction coefficient between the top foil and the bump is a more effective method of achieving both Coulomb damping and higher stiffness. In addition to bump geometry, the load distribution profile greatly influences bump stiffness. A follow-up paper will present the experimental verification and discuss the comparison between theoretical and experimental results.

Analysis of Gas Lubricated Compliant Thrust Bearings

This work is concerned with an evaluation of the performance of a gas thrust bearing using what amounts to a spring supported compliant foil as the bearing surface. To enhance the load capacity of such a device, the leading portion of the foil is given an appropriate converging geometry. The paper offers an analytical investigation of the elastohydrodynamics of the compliant foil bearing, and the effects that the various structural and operational variables have on bearing behavior. Following the solution of the relevant differential equation, the geometry of the thrust sector is first optimized, then solutions are provided for a range of relevant geometrical and operational parameters. The parametric study shows that the optimum geometry for a bearing with the common OD to ID ratio of 2 is β=45deg,b=0.5,h¯1>10 In addition to the geometric parameters, there are also the structural parameters of the foil. The load capacity is shown to increase as the compliance of the bearing rises. While at moderate Λ’s high values of compliance yield the highest load capacity, at high Λ, the optimum compliance is some intermediate value, in our case, α* = 1. Since the stiffness of the bearing is a function of both the structural and hydrodynamic film stiffnesses, high loads tend to flatten the values of K for the softer bearings, leaving essentially the structural stiffness as the dominating spring constant.

Self-Alignment Systems for Heavily Loaded, Compliant, Hydrodynamic Air Bearings

Internal and external self-alignment system for compliant-foil journal bearings have been developed and tested at 35000 rpm in ambient air. These system have been shown to substantially improve the self-alignment capabilities of the compliant-foil bearings. The standard bearings with center-split bump have a misaligned capacity of 0.07 degrees at 55 kPa and 0.03 degrees at 83 kPa. Bearings with an internal self-alignment system were shown to have 0.15-degree misalignment capability at 55-kPa loading and 0.06 degrees at 90 kPa. A bearing with an external self-alignment system tolerated 0.43 degrees of misalignment at 69 kPa and 0.37 degrees at 110 kPa. Self-alignment capabilities of the bearings were improved at higher speed. Limited testing at 288°C showed that the temperature had no influence on the bearing performance. Presented at the 35th Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, May 5–8, 1980