• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.127-131
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• 2003

Foil gas bearing is a noncontact bearing operated by coupled interaction between hydrodynamic pressure of viscous fluid and elastic deformation of foil structure. It has valuable advantages, such as low power loss, long life, oilless environment and low vibration, over conventional bearings for the high speed applications. A high speed BLDC motor adopting the foil bearing has been developed. It is designed to have 38㎾ power at 100,000 RPM for a cryogenic cooler whose operating fluid is neon. In this paper, structural development details especially for the foil gas bearing and rotordynamics are presented.

• 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.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.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.75-83
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• 2018

Microturbomachinery (< 250 kW) using gas foil bearings can function without oil lubricants, simplify rotor-bearing systems, and demonstrate excellent rotordynamic stability at high speeds. State-of-the-art technologies generally use bump foil bearings or leaf foil bearings due to the specific advantages of each of the two types. Although these two types of bearings have been studied extensively, there are very few studies on leaf-bump foil bearings, which are a combination of the two aforementioned bearings. In this work, we illustrate a simple mathematical model of the leaf-bump foil bearing with leaf foils supported on bumps, and predict its static and dynamic performances. The analysis uses the simple elastic model for bumps that was previously developed and verified using experimental data, adds a leaf foil model, and solves the Reynolds equation for isothermal, isoviscous, and ideal gas fluid flow. The model predicts that the drag torques of the leaf-bump foil bearings are not affected significantly by static load and bearing clearance. Due to the preload effect of the leaf foils, rotor spinning, even under null static load, generates significant hydrodynamic pressure with its peak near the trailing edge of each leaf foil. A parametric study reveals that, while the journal eccentricity and minimum film thickness decrease, the drag torque, direct stiffness, and direct damping increase with increasing bump stiffness. The journal attitude angle and cross-coupled stiffness remain nearly constant with increasing bump stiffness. Interestingly, they are significantly smaller compared to the corresponding values obtained for bump foil bearings, thus, implying favorable rotor stability performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.267-272
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• 2003

This paper presents a performance analysis model of corrugated bump foil bearings. The analyses for not only 1st generation bump foil journal bearings but also bump foil thrust bearings are performed. Static performances such as load capacity, attitude angle, pressure distribution, foil deflection, and film thickness are accurately estimated by using soft elasto-hydrodynamic analysis technique and finite difference numerical method. Also dynamic performances such as stiffness coefficients and damping coefficients are estimated by perturbation method. The analysis technique may be appliable to rotordynamic analysis, stability analysis, and optimized bearing design.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.261-266
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• 2003

Foil air bearing, which is a noncontact bearing utilizing viscosity of operating fluid and elastic deformation of foil structure, has several advantages over rolling element bearings in terms of oilless environment, long life, high speed operation, and high temperature application over $500^{\circ}C$ . Recently advanced researches are actively being performed for the application to the extreme temperature such as gas turbines, as well as conventional small turbo machinery. In this paper, the principle of foil air bearing is introduced and a feasibility study to adopt a foil bearing as the turbine bearing of 65 HP turbo shaft engine, which is under development for UAV, is presented.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.541-548
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• 2008

To improve the operational stability of the 100 Watts class Micro Gas Turbine, the air foil bearing with additional damping material has been investigated. The key of structure is that a viscoelastic material is coated under the top foil. The compliant foil journal bearing and thrust bearing are designed to withstand high load of vibrations at the operational speed 870,000 rpm. Test is executed in room temperature. Rotor has stably operated above 480,000 rpm. It is over 55% of the designed speed 870,000 rpm. Synchronous and subsynchronous vibrations are both well controlled. Vibration amplitude diminished over 50%. With the help of increased damping resulting from the viscoelasticity, the rotor stability of Micro turbocharger has been improved.

• 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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• 2004.12a
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• pp.98-103
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• 2004

This paper presents modeling and simulation of the bump foil bearings with consideration of the elastic behavior of the foil and gas compressibility. Heshmat had originally introduced the simple compliance model to estimate the EHL(elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication) performance. But this approach can not consider the deflection of top foil at the edge of bearing, so model is insufficient to analyze in case that the eccentricity ratio is greater than I. So the top foil is considered as a simple beam model supported by linear spring elements, and the bump foil deflection can be simple compliance model. The EHL calculations are performed for convention rigid type, classical foil type, variable pitch type and double bump type toil bearings. This paper presents that 2nd or 3rd generation bearings have excellent performance in every speeds.