• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.279-284
• /
• 2009

The limiting load capacity of air foil thrust bearings at extremely high operating speeds is theoretically investigated. The limiting load capacity of a sector is shown to increase as the angular extent ${\beta}$ and the inlet film thickness $h_1$ of the bearing increase, while it decreases with an increase in the ramp ratio b and the compliance ${\alpha}$ of the bearing. But it is found that the angular extent of the bearing is not related to the total limiting load capacity of the $360^{\circ}$ thrust bearing.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.106-113
• /
• 2000

Effects of surface roughness on bearing performances are investigated numerically in this study, especially for the parallel thrust bearing. Although mating surfaces are parallel and separated by thin fluid film, the pressure distribution is formed due to asperities. Model surface is generated numerically with given autocorrelation function and some surface profile parameters. Then the average Reynolds equation is applied to predict the effects of surface roughness between hydrodynamic and mixed lubrication regimes. In this equation, flow factors are defined as correction terms to smooth out high frequency surface roughness. The correlation length is proposed to get the minimum load for the parallel thrust bearing for various sliding conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.888-891
• /
• 2002

This paper presents the lubrication characteristics of a disk type wavy thrust bearing. The hydrodynamic pressure distributions in the fluid film are numerically solved the Reynolds equation and then the bearing load capacity and friction forces acting on the disk are calculated. Especially the effects of number and amplitude of the circumferential waves are investigated for tilted operating conditions. The results showed that the load capacity increases with wave amplitude and optimum wave number exists for given design conditions. Therefore the results can be applied to enhance the lubrication performance of thrust bearing adopted in the scroll compressor.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.27-33
• /
• 2020

Self-equalizing tilting pad thrust bearings are usually employed in turbomachines to achieve high stability and reliability. A tilting pad bearing can incorporate self-equalizing links to handle the misalignment between the bearing and the thrust collar. In this popular design method, the pads sit on the upper-level plates and the lower-level plates stay on the retainer base. With misalignment, the pads that are heavily loaded are pushed down. Consequently, the link pushes up the pads on the opposite side, keeping the bearing surface parallel to the thrust collar surface. The self-equalizing link is used to handle the misalignment from the thermal and mechanical effects. In this study, the experimental investigation deals with the performance of self-equalizing tilting pad thrust bearings. The test rig for evaluating the performance of bearing is developed which can control the misalignment angle. Simultaneous measurements are taken for the force acting on each pad. Pad metal temperature and oil film thickness are functions of the shaft speed, bearing load, misalignment angle, and design of leveling plates. The effect of misalignment on bearing performance is discussed. The results demonstrate that the load on each pad depends on the test conditions(especially misalignment angle), and the load influences the performance of bearings.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.642-648
• /
• 2016

This paper deals with an analytical and experimental investigation to predict the axial thrust load that results from turbocharger operating conditions. The Axial forces acting on the turbocharger thrust bearing are caused by the unbalance between turbine wheel gas forces and compressor wheel air forces. It has a great influence on the friction losses, which reduces the efficiency and performance of high-speed turbocharger. This paper presents the calculation procedure for the axial thrust forces under operating conditions in a turbocharger. The first step is to determine the relationship between thrust forces and strains by experimental and numerical methods. The analysis results were verified by measuring the strains on a thrust bearing with the specially designed test device. And then, the operating strains and temperatures were measured to inversely calculate the thrust strains which were compensated the thermal effects. Therefore it's possible to calculate the magnitudes of the thrust forces under operating turbocharger by comparing the regenerated strains with the rig test results. It will possible to optimize the design of a thrust bearing for reducing the mechanical friction losses using the results.

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

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.332-341
• /
• 2020

High-speed turbomachinery implements gas foil bearings (GFBs) due to their distinctive advantages, such as high efficiency, lesser part count, and lower weight. This paper provides the test results of the static structural stiffnesses and loss factors of bump-type foil thrust bearings with increasing preload and bearing deflection. The focus of the current work is to experimentally quantify variability in structural stiffnesses and loss factors among the four test thrust bearings with identical design values and material of the bump and top foil geometries using the same (open-source) fabrication method. A simple test setup, using a rigidly mounted non-rotating shaft and thrust disk, measures the bearing bump deflections with increasing static loads on the test bearing. The inner and outer diameters of the test bearings are 41 mm and 81 mm, respectively. The loss factor, best-representing energy dissipation in the test bearings, is estimated from the area inside the local hysteresis loop of the load versus the bearing deflection curve. The measurements show that structural stiffnesses and loss factors of the test bearings significantly rely on applied preloads and bearing deflections. Local structural stiffnesses of the test bearings increase with applied preloads but decrease with bearing deflections. Changes of loss factors are less sensitive to applied preloads and bearing deflections compared to those of structural stiffnesses. Up to 35% variability in static load structural stiffnesses is found between bearings, while up to 30% variability in loss factors is found between bearings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.53 no.2
• /
• pp.325-336
• /
• 2015

This paper presents a study based on the damage due to the fatigue life of thrust ball bearings using vibratory analysis. The main contribution of this work lies in establishing a relation between modal damping and the rolling contact fatigue damage of the thrust ball bearing. Time domain signals and frequency spectra are extracted from both static and dynamic experiments. The first part of this research consists in measuring the damping of damaged thrust ball bearings using impact hammer characterization tests. In a second part, indented components representing spalled bearings are studied to determine the evolution of damping values in real-time vibration spectra using the random decrement method. Dynamic results, in good agreement with static tests, show that damping varies depending on the component's damage state. Therefore, the method detailed in this work will offer a possible technique to estimate the thrust ball bearing fatigue damage variation in presence of spalling.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2010

In the last decade, laser surface texturing (LST) has emerged as a viable option of surface engineering. Many problems related with mechanical components such as thrust bearings, mechanical face seals and piston rings, etc, LST result in significant improvement in load capacity, wear resistance and reduction in friction force. It is mainly experimentally reported the micro-dimpled bearing surfaces can reduce friction force, however, precise theoretical results are not presented until now. In this paper, a commercial computational fluid dynamics(CFD) code, FLUENT is used to investigate the lubrication characteristics of a parallel thrust bearing having 3-dimensional micro-dimple. The results show that the pressure, velocity and density distributions are highly affected by the location and number of dimple. The numerical method and results can be use in design of optimum dimple characteristics, and further researches are required.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.81-85
• /
• 2023

This study presents an experimental investigation of the effects of surface roughness on gas foil thrust bearing (GFTB) performance. A high-speed motor with the maximum speed of 80 krpm rotates a thrust runner and a pneumatic cylinder applies static loads to the test GFTB. When the motor speed increases and reaches a specific speed at which a hydrodynamic film pressure generated within the gap between the thrust runner and test GFTB is enough to support the applied static load, the thrust runner lifts off from the test GFTB and the friction mechanism changes from the boundary lubrication to the hydrodynamic lubrication. The experiment shows a series of lift-off test and load-carrying capacity test for two thrust runners with different surface roughnesses. For a constant static load of 15 N, thrust runner A with its lower surface roughness exhibits a higher start-up torque but lower lift-off torque than thrust runner B with a higher surface roughness. The load capacity test at a rotor speed of 60 krpm reveals that runner A results in a higher maximum load capacity than runner B. Runner A also shows a lower drag torque, friction coefficient, and bearing temperature than runner B at constant static loads. The results imply that maintaining a consistent surface roughness for a thrust runner may improve its static GFTB performance.