• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.131-138
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• 2014

This study investigates the effects of the slopes of the rotational axis and bearing preloads on the natural frequencies and onset speeds of the instability of a rotor supported on gas foil bearings (GFBs). The predictive model for the rotating system consists of a rigid rotor supported on two gas foil journal bearings (GFJBs) and a pair of gas foil thrust bearings (GFTBs). Each GFJB supports approximately half the rotor weight. As the slope of the rotational axis increases from $0^{\circ}$(horizontal rotor operation) to $90^{\circ}$(vertical rotor operation), the applied load on the GFJB owing to the rotor weight decreases. The predictions show that the natural frequency and onset speed of instability decrease significantly with an increase in the slope of the rotational axis. In a parametric study, the nominal radial clearance and preload for the GFJB were changed. In general, a decrease in the nominal radial clearance lead to an increase in the natural frequency and onset speed of instability. For constant assembly clearance, the decrease in the preload changed the natural frequency and onset speed of instability with insignificant improvements in the rotordynamic stability. The present predictions can be used as design guidelines for GFBs for oil-free high-speed rotating machinery with improved rotordynamic performance.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.205-212
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• 2022

This paper presents experimental measurements of the structural characteristics of a two-pad beam-type gas foil journal bearing and its rotordynamic performance for a high-speed motor-driven turbocompressor. The test bearing had two top foils and two beam foils, each with an arc length of ~180°. Each beam foil was etched to obtain 40 beams with six geometries of different lengths and widths. The insertion of beam foils into the bearing housing produces equivalent beam heights. The structural tests of the bearing with a non-rotating journal revealed a smaller bearing clearance and larger structural stiffness for the load-on-pad configuration than for the load-between-pads configuration. Rotordynamic performance measurements during driving tests up to 100 krpm demonstrated synchronous vibrations and subsynchronous vibrations with large amplitudes. The test was repeated after inserting the shim between the top foil and beam foil to reduce the bearing radial clearance. The reduced bearing clearance resulted in a reduction in the peak amplitude of the synchronous vibrations and an increase in the speed at which the peak amplitude occurred. In addition, the onset speed and amplitude of the subsynchronous vibrations were dramatically increased and diminished, respectively. The rotor coast-down tests at 100 krpm show that the reduction in the bearing clearance extends the time to rotor stop, thus implying an improvement in hydrodynamic pressure generation and a reduction in bearing frictional torque.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.2 s.233
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• pp.239-246
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• 2005

A rotor dynamic analysis is implemented to confirm the vibration stability of the high speed centrifugal chiller coupled with gear system. As the rotating speed of the centrifugal chiller under investigation is increased up to 17605rpm at the pinion rotating part, the bearing instability is getting higher and, furthermore, the rotor-bearing system might experience a few critical speed which lead to system failure due to the excessive vibration. In this study, considering the loading capacity and stability conditions, offset journal bearings are adopted for the pinion rotating system and general cylindrical bearings are used for motor part. From the modal analysis, the system is found to be stable as the critical damping ratio which shows the damping characteristics of the system are positive over all operating ranges, and in addition, the synchronous rotating frequency does not come across with any whirl natural frequency. From these results the authors confirm the vibration stability of the rotor-bearing system suggested in this study.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.281-286
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• 2001

Tilting pad journal bearings have been widely used in a high speed rotating machinery, such as steam turbines and gas turbines, owing to their inherent stability characteristics. However, some peculiar fatigue failure in the babbitt metal due to spragging has been continuously occurred at the leading edge of the upper pads. The spragging is defined as the pad vibration initiated on the upper unloaded pads in a tilting pad journal bearing. This paper describes both several kinds of bearing failure related with spragging and the theoretical investigation on the prevention of the spragging phenomenon using the variation of preload. Results show that positive preload(m>0.5) assures all pads remain statically loaded under all operating conditions. For the change of design parameter to prevent spragging, thermo-hydrodynamic lubrication and rotor dynamic analysis were performed to verify temperature limitation on bearing and vibration problems on rotor bearing system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.15 no.1 s.94
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• pp.87-95
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• 2005

This paper proposes a method to calculate the characteristics of a coupled hydrodynamic journal and thrust bearing of a HDD spindle motor. The governing equations for the journal and thrust bearings are the two dimensional Reynolds equations in $\theta z$ and $ r\theta$ planes, respectively. Finite element method is appropriately applied to analyze the coupled journal and thrust bearing by satisfying the continuity of mass and pressure at the interface between the journal and thrust bearings. The pressure in a coupled bearing is calculated by applying the Reynolds boundary condition and compared with that by using the Half-Sommerfeld boundary condition. The static characteristics are obtained by integrating the pressure along the fluid film. The flying height of spindle motor is measured to verify the proposed analytical result. This research shows that the proposed method can describe HDB in a HDD system more accurately and realistically than the separate analysis of a journal or thrust bearing.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.112-118
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• 2017

Tilting pad journal bearings(TPJBs) are widely used for high speed rotating machinery owing to their rotordynamic stability and thermal management feature. With increase in the rotating speed of such machinery, an increasingly important aspect of TPJB design is the prediction of their thermal behaviors. Researchers have conducted detailed investigations in the last two decades, which provided design tools for the TPJBs. Based on these previous studies, this paper presents a thermohydrodynamic(THD) analysis model for TPJBs. To calculate pressure distribution, we solve the generalized Reynolds equation and to predict the lubricant temperature, we solve the 3D energy equation. We employ the oil mixing theory to calculate pad inlet temperature; further, to consider heat conduction via the pad, we solve the heat conduction equation for the pads. We assume the shaft temperature as the averaged oil film temperature and apply natural convection boundary conditions to the pad side and back surfaces. To validate the analysis model, we compare the predicted pad temperatures with those from previous research. The results show good agreement with previous research. In addition, we conduct parametric studies on a TPJB which was used in a gas turbine simulator system. The predicted results show that film temperature largely depends on the rotating speed and oil supply condition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1432-1437
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• 2001

In this paper, a control algorithm which is synchronously excitating the bearing with whirl speed of rotor is employed to suppress the whirl instability and unbalance response of the rotor-bearing system. Also, the cavitation algorithm implementing the Jakobsson-Floberg-Olsson boundary condition is adopted to predict cavitation regions in the fluid film more accurately than a conventional analysis with the Reynolds condition. The stabilities and unbalance responses of the rotor-bearing system are investigated for various control gains and phase differences between the bearing and journal motion. It is shown that the unbalance response of the system can be greatly improved by synchronous control of the bearing, and there is an optimum phase difference, which gives the minimum unbalance response of the system, for given operating condition. It is also found that the onset speed of the instability can be greatly increased by synchronous control of the bearing.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

In this study, a three-pad gas foil journal bearing with a diameter of 40 mm and an axial length of 35 mm was modeled to predict the static and dynamic performances with regard to an increasing mechanical preload. The Reynolds equation for an isothermal and isoviscous ideal gas was coupled with a simple elastic foundation foil model to calculate the hydrodynamic pressure solution iteratively. In the prediction results, the journal eccentricity, journal attitude angle, and minimum film thickness decreased, but the friction torque increased with the preload. A quick comparison implied a lower load capacity but higher stability for a three-pad gas foil bearing compared to a one-pad gas foil journal bearing. The direct stiffness coefficients increased with the preload, but the cross-coupled stiffness coefficients decreased. The direct damping coefficient increased in the horizontal direction but decreased in the vertical direction as the preload increased. These model predictions will be useful as a benchmark against experimental test data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.748-752
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• 2004

Fluid dynamic bearings (FDBs) have been replacing ball bearings of the HDD spindle motor very rapidly. But there are several demerits of HDB, such as high friction torque, variable viscosity of the fluid lubricant depending on operating temperature, low stiffness, and etc. Eccentricity is one of the major parameters which affects the static and dynamic characteristics. As the static eccentricity is larger, the stiffness and the damping coefficients become bigger. But friction torque is relatively unaffected by the static eccentricity. This research proposes a new type of journal bearing with asymmetric journal grooves which results in better dynamic characteristics. The static and dynamic characteristics of the new journal bearing are investigated by solving the Reynolds' equation with FEM, and the transient analysis is performed to predict the dynamic behavior of rotor by solving the equations of motion of a HDD spindle system with Runge-Kutta method. The result shows that the proposed Journal bearings have much bigger stiffness and damping coefficients compared with the conventional symmetric ones. And consequently, it has smaller whirl radius and tilting angle.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.137-141
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• 1995

회전기계에서 발생하는 진동 원인 중 약 60% 이상이 불평형(unbalance)에 의한 진동이다. 불평형은 기계의 과도한 진동을 유발시킬 뿐 아니라 베어링의 수명 단축 및 소음을 발생시킨다. 따라서, 기게의 수명을 연장시키고, 기계의 성능을 향상시키며 부드럽고 진동이 없는 운전을 위하여 평형잡이(balancing)는 절대적으로 중요하다. 불평형은 축 중심선에 대하여 회전체의 질량 분포가 비대칭이기 때문에 발생하는데 그 원인으로는 부품 자체가 비대칭에서 오는 설계 또는 제도 오차, 주물의 기포 및 용접의 불균일 등에 의한 재질상의 결함, 그리고 부품조립시 형상누적공차 등에 의한 가공.조립오차 등이 있다. ISO의 정의에 따르면 평형잡이는 회전체의 질량 분포를 조사하고 필요하다면 저널의 진동과 베어링의 작용력들이 운전속도에 대응하는 주파수에서 특정한 한계내에 있도록 보증하게 하기 위한 조정을 하는 과정이다. 불평형 상태에 대한 조사도 평형잡이로 표현된다. 그러나 수정이 필요하다고 간주된다면 수행된다. 모든 회전체는 초기 불평형(initial unbalance)이라 불리는 임의의 불평형을 가지고 출발한다. 완벽하게 평형이 잡힌 회전체를 달성하는 것이 평형잡이 작업의 목적은 아니다. 임의의 잔류 불평형(residual unbalance)은 항상 허용된다. 경제적인 이유에서 회전체는 일반적으로 요구되는 적절한 허용치보다 더 이상 평형잡이를 하지 않는다. 현장에서 현장 평형잡이를 수행하게 될 경우, 가끔 계산된 수정질량이 매우 클 경우가 있다. 이때 기게의 조건상 큰 수정질량을 부착하기가 곤란한 경우가 자주 발생한다. 작은 수정질량으로 평형잡이를 할 수 있다면 기계의 안정성 면에서 매우 유리하다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 영향계수법(Influence Coefficient Method : ICM)의 기본 개념과 유전 알고리즘(Genetic Algorithm : GA)을 이용하여 회전기계의 안정성을 보장할 수 있는 허용진동 내에서의 최적 수정질량 계산법을 제시한다.