• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.344-351
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• 2004

Tilling pad journal bearings have been widely used to support the rotors of the high rotating machinery such as steam and gas turbines owing to their inherent dynamic stability characteristics. However, serious bearing problems such as fatigue damage in the upper unloaded pad, the break of locking pins and the wear of pinholes etc. by pad fluttering are frequently taken place in the actual steam turbines. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanism of pad fluttering and to suggest the useful design guideline(application of preload, m) for the purpose of preventing bearing problems by pad fluttering in a tilting pad journal bearing. It is estimated that upper pad is easy to flutter because the film shape of the upper pad is diverged by moment acting on pivot point. This paper suggests that effective preload range(m $\geq$ 0.5) in order to be statically loaded pad under all operating conditions. Also, design modified bearing is suggested for the adjustment in actual steam turbines. And bearing and rotor dynamic analysis are performed to identify bearing characteristics and to verify the reliability of rotor-bearing system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.260-265
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• 2013

To increase the machine accuracy by improving the stiffness of spindle bearings, preload was applied to the spindle bearings. The methods of fixed position preload, convertible preload, constant pressure preload, and variable preload are used to apply the preload to the spindle bearing. The previous studies performed by the author of this study were variable preload methods using rubber pressure and centrifugal force based on mechanical systems. This study proposed a toggle joint mechanism that could be applied to variable preload method using centrifugal force and rubber pressure to increase the preload. Also, a finite element analysis was conducted to predict the deformation of the rubber and change of the preload. And the analysis results showed that the preload by the device using rubber pressure only was increased by the toggle joint mechanism using rubber pressure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1321-1325
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• 2013

In this paper, we proposed an air bearing stage with active magnetic preloads in vertical directions compensating motion errors and attenuating vibrations to improve dynamic characteristics. This preloaded design gives simpler configuration of the stage, and active control of preload can be used for compensating motion errors by feedforward method. To improve dynamic characteristics, vibration of the table is monitored by an accelerometer, and controlled by a DSP based digital controller with integrator and band pass filters for suppressing roll and pitch vibration modes. The modes were evaluated by measuring frequency response functions, and compared with compensated responses. This showed effective results for suppressing poorly damped regenerative vibration of air bearings.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1327-1333
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• 2013

Air bearings are widely used in precision stages because of low friction and high motion accuracy, however, they suffer from low stiffness in comparison with rolling bearings or hydrostatic bearings. So, several preloading methods using weight, magnet and vacuum force, and opposing pads have been used to increase the stiffness of the air bearings. In this paper, pressure distributions of the vacuum preloaded porous air bearings are calculated using the proposed method. And then, the load capacity and stiffness are analyzed. For the vacuum preloaded air bearings, the stiffness is increased owing to reduced bearing clearance by vacuum force. The simulation results indicate that variation of vacuum pressure with clearance in the vacuum pocket gives rise to low stiffness, so the vacuum pocket should be designed for pressure to be constantly maintained regardless of the bearing clearance by means of large effective pumping speed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.135-136
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• 2006

A precise linear motion stage supported by magnetically preloaded air bearings is introduced where preloading magnetic actuators are combined with permanent magnets and coils to adjust air bearing clearance by controlling magnetic force actively. Each of the magnetic actuators has a permanent magnet generating nominal magnetic flux for required preload and a coil to perturb the magnetic force resulting adjustment of air-bearing clearance. The characteristics of porous aerostatic bearing are analyzed by numerical analysis, and analytic magnetic circuit model is driven for magnetic actuator to calculate nominal preload and variation of force due to current. A 1-axis linear stage motorized with a coreless linear motor and a linear encoder is built for verifying this design concept. With the active magnetic preloading actuators controlled with DSP board and PWM power amplifiers, the active on-line adjusting tests about the vertical, pitching and rolling motion were performed, and the result shows very good linearity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.291-297
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• 2003

Fluid film tilting pad journal bearings are widely used for large steam turbines. However, bearing problems by pad fluttering, such as fatigue damage in the upper unloaded pad, the break of locking pins and the wear of pinholes etc., are frequently taken place in the actual steam turbines. The purpose of the present work is to investigate on the mechanism of pad fluttering and the prevention of pad fluttering with the variation of preload(m) in a tilting pad journal bearing. It is estimated that upper pad is easy to flutter because the film shape of upper pad is diverged one from the analysis of moment direction acting on pivot point. Effective preload range in order to be statically loaded pad under all operating conditions is suggested as m＞0.5. Also, as a bearing that can be prevented pad fluttering, design modified bearing is suggested. For the adjustment in actual steam turbines, bearing and rotor dynamic analysis are performed to identify bearing characteristics and to verify the reliability of rotor-bearing system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.138-143
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• 2005

The important problem in the high speed spindles is to reduce and minimize the thermal effect by the motor and ball bearings. Thermal characteristics according to the bearing preload and hollow shaft cooling are studied for the spindle with the oil mist lubrication and high frequency motor. Temperature distribution and thermal deformation according to the spindle speed, preload and flow rate are measured by thermocouple and gap sensor. Temperature distribution and thermal deformation are analyzed by using the finite element method. The results of analysis are compared with the measured data. This paper show that the suitable preload and hollow shaft cooling are very effective to minimize the thermal effect by the motor and ball bearings. This study indicates that temperature distribution and thermal deformation of the high speed spindle system can be estimated reasonably by using the three dimensional model through the finite element method and supports thermal optimization and more effective cooling method.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.31-36
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• 2005

Use of the high frequency motor spindles are increasing for the high speed machine tools recently. The important problem in the high speed spindles is to reduce and minimize the thermal effect by the motor and ball hearings. Thermal characteristics according to the bearing preload and spindle cooling are studied for the spindle with the oil mist lubrication and high frequency motor. Temperature distribution and thermal displacement according to the spindle speed, preload and flow rate are measured. Temperature distribution and thermal displacement of the high speed spindle system can be estimated reasonably by using the three dimensional model through the finite element method. The results of analysis are compared with the measured data. This study supports thermal optimization and find out more effective cooling condition. This paper show that the suitable preload and spindle cooling are very effective to minimize the thermal effect by the motor and ball bearings.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.134-142
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a precise linear motion stage supported by magnetically preloaded air bearings. The eight aerostatic bearings with rectangular carbon porous pads were located only one side of vertical direction under the platen where four bearings are in both sides of horizontal direction as wrap-around-design, and this gives simpler configuration than which constrained by air bearings for all direction. Each of the magnetic actuators has a permanent magnet generating static magnetic flux far required preload and a coil to perturb the magnetic farce resulting adjustment of air- bearing clearance. The characteristics of porous aerostatic bearing are analyzed by numerical analysis, and analytic magnetic circuit model is driven for magnetic actuator to calculate preload and variation of force due to current. A 1-axis linear stage motorized with a coreless linear motor and a linear encoder was designed and built to verify this design concept. The load capacity, stiffness and preload force were examined and compared with analysis. With the active magnetic preloading actuators controlled with DSP board and PWM power amplifiers, the active on-line adjusting tests about the vertical, pitching and rolling motion were performed. It was shown that motion control far three DOF motions were linear and independent after calibration of the control gains.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.102-110
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• 2023

This study aims to quantify the variation in the performance of a tilting pad journal bearing (TPJB) owing to the elastic deformation of its pad. To this end, we first defined a parameter, "elastic preload", and predicted the changes in the performance of the TPJB, as a function of the preload amount. We used the iso-viscosity Reynolds equation, which ignores the temperature rise due to viscous shear in thin films, and the resultant thermal deformation of the bearing structure. We employed a three-dimensional finite element model to predict the elastic deformation of the bearing pad, and a transient analysis, to converge to a static equilibrium condition of the flexible pads and journal. Conducting a modal coordinate transformation helped us avoid heavy computational issues arising from a mesh refinement in the three-dimensional finite element pad model. Moreover, we adopted the Hertzian contact model to predict the elastic deformation at the pivot location. With the aforementioned overall strategy, we predicted the performance changes owing to the elastic deformation of the pad under varying load conditions. From the results, we observed an increase in the preload due to the pad elastic deformation.