Effects of shear stiffness in top foil structure on gas foil bearing performance based on thick plate theory

Abstract

The effects of top foil shear stiffness for an incompressible journal foil bearing are discussed based on thick plate theory of top foil. The structural model includes bending, shear of thick plate and elastic foundation effects of bump foil. By employing the finite element method and the finite difference method, the compressible gas lubricated Reynolds equation and the film thickness equation are solved coupled together. The static characteristics such as film thickness and attitude angle are obtained and compared with literature results to verify the validation of the proposed method. Then the numerical results of thick plate model are compared with Kirchhoff plate model to study the shear stiffness effects in top foil structure on bearing performance. Results demonstrate that shear stiffness effects are significant in an elastically supported foil bearing and the shear effects should be considered in the estabilishment of 2D plate top foil model.

Keywords

Foil bearing shear load capacity film thickness

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Agrawal G. Foil air/gas bearing technology - an overview. ASME paper 97-GT-347, 1997.

Feng

Kaneko

. Analytical model of bump-type foil bearings using a link-spring structure and a finite-element shell model. ASME J Tribol 2010; 132: 021706–021706.

Blok

van Rossum

. The foil bearing-a new departure in hydrodynamic lubrication. Lubric Eng 1953; 9(6): 316–320.

Walowit

Anno

. Modern developments in lubrication mechanics, London: Applied Science Publishers Ltd, 1975.

Heshmat

Walowit

Pinkus

. Analysis of gas-lubricated foil journal bearings. ASME J Lubric Technol 1983; 105: 647–655.

Heshmat

Walowit

Pinkus

. Analysis of gas-lubricated complaint thrust bearings. Trans ASME 1983; 105: 638–646.

San Andrés L and Kim TH. Improvements to the analysis of gas foil bearings integrating of top foil 1D and 2D structural models. ASME paper GT2007-27249, 2007.

Carpino

Talmage

. A fully coupled finite element formulation for elastically supported foil journal bearing. Tribol Trans 2003; 46(4): 560–565.

Carpino

Medvetz

Peng

J-P

. Effects of membrane stresses in the prediction of foil bearing performance. Tribol Trans 1994; 37(1): 43–50.

10.

Feldman

Kligerman

Etsion

. The validity of the Reynolds equation in modeling hydrostatic effects in gas lubricated textured parallel surfaces. J Tribol 2006; 128: 128–135.

11.

Petyrt

. Introduction to finite element vibration analysis 2010, 2nd edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.

12.

Kim TH and San Andrés L. Heavily loaded gas foil bearings: a model anchored to test data. ASME paper GT2005-68486, 2005.

13.

Jackson

. Self adapting mechanical step bearings for variations in load. Tribol Lett 2005; 20: 11–20.

14.

Duvvuru

Jackson

Hong

. Self-adapting microscale surface grooves for hydrodynamic lubrication. STLE Tribol Trans 2009; 52(1): 1–11.

15.

Fesanghary

Khonsari

. On the shape optimization of self-adaptive grooves. STLE Tribol Trans 2011; 54: 256–264.

16.

Kim

San Andres

. Effects of a mechanical preload on the dynamic force response of gas foil bearings: measurements and model predictions. Tribol Trans 2009; 52: 569–580.

17.

Kumar

Kim

. Load capacity measurements of hydrostatic bump foil bearing. In: Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2009,, Orlando, FL, USA, 2009, paper GT2009-59286, 2009.

18.

Kfaria

San Andrés

. On the numerical modeling of high speed hydrodynamic gas bearing. ASME J Tribol 2000; 122: 124–130.

19.

Szeri

. Fluid film lubrication 2011, 2nd edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.