Abstract
Air foil bearing supports the rotating journal using hydrodynamic force generated at thin air film. The bearing performances, stiffness, damping coefficient and load capacity, depend on the rotating speed and the performance of the elastic foundation, bump foil. The main focus of this study is to decide the dynamic performance of corrugated bump foil, structural stiffness and Coulomb damping caused by friction between bump foil and top foil/bump foil and housing. Structural stiffness is determined by the bump shape (bump height, pitch and bump thickness), dry-friction, and interacting force filed up to fixed end. So, the change of the characteristics was considered as the parameters change. The air foil bearing specification for analysis follows the general size; diameter 38.1 mm and length 38.1 mm (L/D=1.0). The results show that the stiffness at the fixed end is more than the stiffness at the free end, Coulomb damping is more at the fixed end due to the small displacement, and two dynamic characteristics are dependent on each other.