• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.12a
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• pp.453-458
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• 2002

The feasibility study on supporting a turbocharger rotor on air foil bearing is investigated. Based on finite difference method and Newton-Raphson method, the static equilibrium position of a turbocharger rotor is predicted. And using finite difference method and perturbation method, dynamic characteristics of air foil bearings are calculated. Rotordynamic analysis is performed by finite element method, with collaboration of calculated stiffness and damping of foil bearing. The effect of compliance and clearance of bump foil bearing on the oil-free turbocharger is investigated in terms of rotordynamics. And the critical speeds, eccentricity ratio, vibration amplitude, and stability are considered. It is demonstrated that foil bearings offer a rlausible replacement for oil-lubricated bearings in turbocharger.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.475-481
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• 2001

Foil bearings have been successfully used for small high speed rotors, such as ACM(Air Cycle Machine), turbo charger, turbo compressor, high speed motor, etc. Recently advanced researches are concentrated on the high load capacity and the extreme temperature foil bearings to extend the application boundary. Some bearings are already adopted into cryogenic machines and micro gas turbines. In this paper, a foil journal bearing designed for high load capacity, which is under development, is introduced. The bearing is for the turbo refrigerator which has a rotor of 18${\~}$25 kgf rotating at 23,000${\~}$38,000 rpm. This application is well beyond conventional spectrum of foil bearings because the rotor is relatively heavy and the rotational speed is low. Therefore, the development is challenging. The foil bearing is a bump type, the size is 60mm in diameter and 50mm in length, the operating fluid is air and rotational speed is 26,000 rpm. In-house software was developed and used for bearing design. Tested maximum load capacity is 80kgf, 0.62 in terms of load capacity coefficient, and testing is being continued.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.12a
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• pp.309-314
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• 2003

High-efficiency turboblowers in the next generation have been successfully developed and commercialized first in the world, using the high-speed BLDC motors and the foil air bearings. About 20-35% savings in electricity consumption in the field are found in comparison with the conventional roots rotary blowers and the integral gear-driven turboblowers. Current TB75 and TB150 products are replacing the existing blowers in the worldwide market.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.607-610
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• 2002

As machines become smaller and faster multileaf foil bearings are used to overcome the problems with heat, friction and wear Systems with foil bearings do not need a separate system for lubrication. These bearings are self acting and are therefore green systems. Until now, there have been many studies on the structural and dynamical performances. Therefore the object of the present study is to predict the flow and structural characteristics by using the Fluid/structure interaction method. The increase in RPM led to the increase in pressure, temperature difference, maximum velocity, Mach number, shear stress and torque. In the case of 90,000 RPM effects such as choking led to a non-lineararity in the system. Also the effect of eccentricity ratio was observed and showed that eccentricity increased the maximum pressure and the density difference while decreasing the shear stress and torque.

• 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.24 no.6
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• pp.378-385
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• 2008

In foil bearings, the friction between bumps and their mating surfaces is the major factor which exerts great influence on the bearing performance. From this point of view, many efforts have been made to improve the understanding of the influence of the friction on the foil bearing performance by developing a number of analytical models. However, most of them did not consider the hysteretic behavior of the foil structure resulting from the friction. The present work developed the static structural model in which hysteretic behavior of the friction was considered. The foil structure was modeled using finite element method and the algorithm which determines the conditions of the contact nodes and the directions of the friction forces was used to take into account the friction. The developed model was integrated into the foil bearing prediction code to investigate the effects of the friction on the static performance of the bearing. The results of analysis show that multiple static equilibrium positions are presented for the one static load under the influence of the friction, inferring its great effects on the dynamic performance. However, the effect of friction on the minimum film thickness which determines load capacity of the bearing is negligible.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.936-941
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• 2001

This paper deals with the design of oil-tree motor-driven two-stage centrifugal compressor supported by air-lubricated multi-leaf foil bearings. The design of this compressor is performed, based upon prediction of critical speeds, load capacity, and stability. It is demonstrated in this paper that multi-leaf foil bearings can be adopted to satisfactorily support this centrifugal compressor.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.104-108
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• 2004

Micro turbine is an electric power generating system using a gas turbine whose rated power is under 300kW, and it is featured as a small, efficient. maintenance free and environment-friendly system. Air foil bearing has several advantages over conventional bearings for micro turbine because it is oilless and non-contact. Recently, air foil bearings for high temperature over $500^{\circ}C$ has been developed for the application of 65kW micro turbine system. In this paper, the development and current status are summarized in detail.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.109-115
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• 2004

The micro turbo generator is new portable power source based on the Brayton cycle, which consists of a compressor, a turbine, a generator, and a combustion chamber. In this paper, the thermodynamic analysis was performed to find the required condition for hundreds watts power in the micro turbo generator, and also the rotordynamic stability was predicted using the numerical analysis of air foil bearings which support the micro turbo generator. By experimental works, the rotordynamic stability of the micro turbo generator with foil bearings was verified. While various transient dynamic situation, the micro turbo generator had stable performances. From the result, it was demonstrated that air foil bearings could be adapted to the micro turbo generator as a excellent lubrication element.