• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.76-80
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• 2023

This paper describes an experimental investigation of the effect of cooling flow rate on gas foil thrust bearing (GFTB) performance. In a newly developed GFTB test rig, a non-contact type pneumatic cylinder provides static loads to the test GFTB and a high-speed motor rotates a thrust runner up to the maximum speed of 80 krpm. Force sensor, torque arm connected to another force sensor, and thermocouples measures the applied static load, drag torque, and bearing temperature, respectively, for cooling flow rates of 0, 25, and 50 LPM at static loads of 50, 100, and 150 N. The test GFTB with the outer radius of 31.5 mm has six top foils supported on bump foil structures. During the series of tests, the transient responses of the bearing drag torque and bearing temperature are recorded until the bearing temperature converges with time for each cooling flow rate and static load. The test data show that the converged temperature decreases with increasing cooling flow rate and increases with increasing static load. The drag torque and friction coefficient decrease with increasing cooling flow rate, which may be attributed to the decrease in viscosity and lubricant (air) temperature. These test results suggest that an increase in cooling flow rate improves GFTB performance.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.12a
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• pp.662-667
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• 2003

This paper presents a performance analysis of the 1st generation bump foil journal bearings for the micro gas turbine TG75. Static performances such as load capacity and attitude angle are estimated by using soft elasto-hydrodynamic analysis technique, and dynamic performances such as stiffness and damping coefficients are estimated by perturbation method. Rotordynamic analysis for TG75 is performed by using the bearing analysis results. TG75 rotor has 2 horizontal and vertical directional natural modes due to the bearing stiffness characteristics. TG75 rotor will be stably operated between the 1st bending mode at 33000cpm and the 2nd bending mode at 85500cpm. Unbalance response analysis results satisfy the API vibration criteria.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.114-118
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• 2002

In this work, head-disk interactions are studied when flying height becomes lower than laser bump height on the landing zone of a disk. With the reduction of the spinning speed in a spin stand, the flying height is decreased under the height of laser bumps. Conventional and padded pico sliders sweep between landing Bone and data zone and, then, the dynamic behavior of the pico sliders and head-disk impacts are investigated using AE and stiction/friction signals. After 200n cycle-sweep tests, bearing analysis and AFM analysis indicate that there are some signs of wear and plastic deformation in the landing zone of a disk, although AE and stiction/friction signals are not significantly changed during the sweep tests. The experimental results of this paper suggest that in CSS tests at component level, more rigorous examination methods of wear and plastic deformation might be necessary as flying height becomes getting lower.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.102-108
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• 2003

The height of laser bumps has been considered as the limit of the minimum flying height in the contact start-stop (CSS) of hard disk drives. In this paper, tribological interactions at flying height under laser bumps are investigated in a spin stand for development of ultra-low flying head-disk interface. With the reduction of the spinning speed in a spin stand, the flying height is decreased under the height of laser bumps and, then, head-disk interactions are investigated using AE and stiction/friction signals. During seek tests and 20000 cycle-sweep tests, AE and stiction/friction signals are not significantly changed and there are no catastrophic failures of head-disk interface. Bearing analysis and AFM analysis show that there are signs of wear and plastic deformation on the disks. It is suggested that flying height could be as low as and, sometimes, lower than laser bump height.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.1029-1037
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• 2015

Recently, the importance of rotordynamic stability has been increased because of the tendency to employ ultra-high speeds in rotating machinery. In particular, the dynamic characteristics of gas bearings for high-speed rotating machinery need to be identified at various excitation frequencies to predict the rotor's behavior. In this study, we perform dynamic loading tests for gas-foil bearings (GFBs) to determine the bump foil structure and an air-film combined bump-foil structure for varying excitation frequencies. We calculate the dynamic characteristics from the measured force and displacement data. The air film is generated by a pressurized air supply. Based on the results, the stiffness coefficients of the bump structure and the air-film combined bump structure increased, while the damping coefficients decreased at increasing excitation frequencies. Further, the stiffness and damping coefficients of the air-film combined structure show lower values than those of the bump structure. Consequently, we identify the frequency-dependent dynamic characteristics of the bump structure and the effect of gas film on the dynamic characteristics of GFBs. Furthermore, to reveal the effectiveness of the proposed method, we perform experiments and discuss two methods of extracting the dynamic characteristics from the measured data.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.12a
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• pp.237-243
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• 2002

A centrifugal compressor of 50HP for reverse brayton cryocooler using neon as a coolent has been developed. It has relatively low total-to-total pressure ratio but mass flow rate is very small and the voting gas, neon, has greater specific heat ratio than air. It was essential to have very high rotational speed of 100,000 RPM. The efficiency of compressor has great effects on overall system and the COP of cryocooler. To meet the design requirement of the compressor efficiency and to minimized the required rotational speed, highly efficiency impeller having low specific speed was designed. To maintain the overall system efficient high, gas bearing of bump type and high speed permanent magnet synchronus motor was developed and adopted. In this paper, design and performance prediction results of the compressor impeller is presented.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.219-227
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• 2007

The dynamic performance of air foil bearings relies on a coupling between a thin air film and an elastic foil structure. A number of successful analytical techniques to predict dynamic performance have been developed. However, the evaluation of its dynamic characteristic is still not enough because of the mechanical complexity of the foil structure and strong nonlinear behavior of friction force. This work presents a nonlinear transient analysis method to predict dynamic performance of foil bearings. In this method, time dependent Reynolds equation is used to calculate pressure distribution and a finite element method is used to model the bump foil structure. The analysis is treated with a direct implicit integration technique that can handle nonlinear problems and the stick-slip algorithm is used to consider friction force. Using this method the response to the mass unbalance excitation is investigated for various design parameters and operating conditions. The results of analysis show that foil bearing is very effective on the restriction of vibration at the resonance frequency compared to the rigid surface bearings and the effectiveness depends on the operating conditions, static load and a amount of mass unbalance. In addition, there exist optimum values of friction coefficient, bump foil stiffness and number of circumferential slit with regards to minimizing dynamic response at the resonance frequency. These optimum values are system dependent.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.107-114
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• 2018

This paper presents a computational model of a gas foil journal bearing with shim foils between the top foil and bumps, and predicts its static and dynamic performance. The analysis takes the previously developed simple elastic foundation model for the top foil-bump structure and advances it by adding foil models for the "shim foil" and "outer top foil." The outer top foil is installed between the (inner) top foil and bumps, and the shim foil is installed between the inner top foil and outer top foil. Both the inner and outer top foils have an arc length of $360^{\circ}$, but the arc length of the shim foil is shorter, which causes a ramp near its leading edge in the bearing clearance profile. The Reynolds equation for isothermal and isoviscous ideal gas solves the hydrodynamic pressure that develops within the bearing clearance with preloads due to the ramp. The centerline pressure and film thickness predictions show that the shim foil mitigates the peak pressure occurring at the loading direction, and broadens the positive pressure as well as minimum film thickness zones except for the shortest shim foil arc length of $180^{\circ}$. In general, the shim foil decreases the journal eccentricity, and increases the power loss, direct stiffness, and damping coefficients. As the shim foil arc length increases, the journal eccentricity decreases while the attitude angle, minimum film thickness, and direct stiffness/damping coefficients in the horizontal direction increase.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.203-211
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• 2023

This study experimentally investigates the effects of angular acceleration on the friction and wear performances of a gas foil thrust bearing (GFTB) using a typical GFTB with six pads. The outer radius of the bearing is 31.5 mm, the total bearing area is 2,041 mm² , and the bump foil and incline (ramp) height are both 500 ㎛. The newly developed GFTB test rig for measuring the friction torque and coefficient measures the axial load, drag torque, lift-off speed, and touch-down speed. The experiment is conducted for angular accelerations of 78.5, 314.2, and 328.3 rad/s² at axial loads of 5, 10, and 15 N, respectively. The test shows that the start-up friction coefficient increases with increasing axial load at the same angular acceleration, and the friction coefficient decreases with increasing angular acceleration under the same axial load. As the angular acceleration increases, the lift-off speed at the motor start-up increases, and the touch-down speed at the motor stop decreases. The wear distance of the GFTB for a single on/off cycle increases with increasing axial load at the same angular acceleration and decreases nonlinearly with increasing angular acceleration under the same axial load. The test results suggest that adjusting the rotational angular acceleration helps reduce bearing friction and wear.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.12a
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• pp.177-182
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• 2002

In the paper, the development of high-speed industrial turbo blowers with foil air bearings is presented as a first successful commercialization in the world. Their target market is various from wastewater treatment to cement factory processes which require compressed air ranging between 0.6 and 0.8 bar gauge. Employing the state-of·the-art technology of the high-speed BLDC motors, the bump-type foil air bearings and the high- efficient turbo impellers/diffusers, so much compact, efficient and silent blower machines of a single stage are now available in the market, aiming to replace the existing inefficient, bulky and noisy ones, such as roots blowers. The first production lines are established fur 25,75 and 150 hp class blowers. Rotational speeds from about 20,000 to 80,000 rpm are realized directly from the high-speed BLDC motors without any gear boxes, and no lubrication oil is required. A brief introduction of design, manufacture and test results is presented fur mechanical, electrical and aerodynamic performance.