Return to search

MANUFACTURING OF A GAS FOIL BEARINGS FOR PALMED-SIZED TURBOMACHINERY

Compliant Air Foil Bearings are used in a wide variety of applications. The
versatility, ease of manufacture, and low cost of foil bearings are a few of the reasons
foil bearing have been so thoroughly researched.
Miniaturization of gas foil bearings has been explored using silicon parts with
marginal success. An approach utilizing a well known micro-fabrication technique called
LIGA (German acronym meaning Lithography, Electroplating, and Molding) is
suggested as an alternative method. X-ray LIGA and UV-LIGA were explored and
elastic foundations 200?m and 1mm in depth were made for an impulse turbine test
setup. The main difference in between the two methods is resolution and depth that each
is capable of producing. In addition, precision machine forming was used to create a top
foil for the foil bearing.
The predicted performance of the bearing was investigated through the orbit
simulation method. A parametric study based on preload, as well as loss factor, was
conducted in which the rotor speed was varied and the responses were used to create
cascade plots. Both the response and cascade plots are useful to determine the onset of instability and the maximum operating speed of the foil bearing manufactured through
LIGA. The unique features of the gas foil bearing introduced provide great promise in
terms of its application considering the high stable operating speed is just above 1000
krpm.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-05-245
Date2009 May 1900
CreatorsCreary, Andron
ContributorsKim, Daejong
Source SetsTexas A and M University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeBook, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf

Page generated in 0.0016 seconds