Graduation date:1979

Graduation date: 1987

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio State University, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-107). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon Graduate Center, 1981.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon Graduate Center, 1981.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon Graduate Center, 1977.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon Graduate Center, 1976.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon Graduate Center, 1977.

Foil bearings are widely used for oil-free micro turbomachinery. One of the critical technical issues related to reliability of the foil bearings is a coating wear on the top foil and rotor during start/stops. Bearing cooling is also mandatory for certain applications because the foil bearings can generate significant amount of heat depending on operating conditions. Usually axial flow is used through the space between the top foil and bearing sleeve. In this thesis, a hybrid air foil bearing with external pressurization is introduced. The hybrid operation eliminates the coating wear during start-up/shut down, and also reduces drag torque during starts. Furthermore, this hybrid foil bearing does not need cooling system. An experimental test with a loaded bearing under hydrostatic mode demonstrates the high potential of hybrid air foil bearings. The load capacity of the hybrid foil bearing was measured at 20,000 rpm, and compared with that of hydrodynamic foil bearing. The hybrid foil bearing has much higher load capacity than the hydrodynamic foil bearing. The starting torque was also measured and compared with hydrodynamic bearing. A simple analytical model to calculate top foil deflection under hydrostatic pressurization has been developed. Predictions via orbit simulations indicate the hybrid air foil bearings can have a much higher critical speed and onset speed of instability than the hydrodynamic counter part. Major benefits of the hybrid foil bearings also include very low starting torque, reduced wear of the top foil and rotor, and very effective cooling capability by the pressurized air itself. This new concept of hybrid air foil bearings are expected to be widely applied to the oil free turbomachinery industry, especially for heavily loaded and/or high temperature applications.

The contamination of groundwater and soils has been a big issue of great interest and importance to human health. When organic compounds from leaking underground storage tanks or accidental spills on the surface infiltrate into the subsurface environment, they migrate downward through the unsaturated zone. These contaminants are dissolved into groundwater and move with groundwater flow. Thus, there is a need for remediation technologies. Air sparging is relatively cost-effective, as well as an efficient and safe technique for recovering organic contaminants in the subsurface. This technique introduces air into the subsurface system to enhance the volatilization and bioremediation of the contaminant in the groundwater system. In this operating system, the movement of air phase can take place either as a continuous air phase or as discrete air bubbles. However, the present research focused on continuous air phase assumption and mass balance equations of individual phases rather than taking into account the movement of air bubbles and colloidal particle capture on discrete air-water interface. Generally colloidal particles are treated as suspended particles in the water, so the hypothesis is that the rising air bubble can collect the particles and transport them up to the water table where the pump extracts the dirty bubbles from the groundwater system to the processing unit on the ground surface. This dissertation developed a pore-scale study to model the migration of discrete air phase in the presence of colloidal particles captured on the air-water interface. The model was based on the pore-scale balance equation for forces acting on a bubble rising in a porous medium in the presence of colloids. A dimensional analysis of the phenomenon was also conducted to provide a more generalized methodology to evaluate the effect of individual forces acting on an air bubble. The results indicate that the proposed model can predict the terminal velocity of a rising bubble without or with colloidal particles and provide the effect of numbers of colloidal particles, properties of colloidal particles, and solid grain size. The results showed that the terminal velocity of a discrete bubble was affected by the attachment of particles on a bubble, and then the volatile organic compound (VOC) removal rate was changed by the various radii of a bubble and the number of colloidal particles on a bubble.