Design and Optimization of Gas Foil Journal bearing

Supervisor: Presented by:

Dr. Skylab P Bhore Nilabh Vishwakarma (2018DN03)
Asst. Professor {M. Tech. (Design) –III Sem}

Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad
 Introduction

• A Foil Bearing (FB) is a special class of gas

bearing that operates on the principles of
hydrodynamic lubrication

• It has series of flexible surfaces affixed onto

the inner radius of the rigid bearing surface.

• The dominant characteristic of an FB lies in its

ability to generate self-acting hydrodynamic
Fig. Schematic diagram of bump-type foil bearing.
pressure by simply utilizing the surrounding
air.
 Types of BFB’s
Following are the types of BFB’s available:
• Bending dominated type • Tension dominated type
1. Bump type foil bearing 1. Leaf-type foil bearing
2. Tension dominated tape-type bearing

Tension dominated tape-type bearing Bump type foil bearing Leaf-type foil bearing
Advantages

• The main advantage of foil bearings is the elimination of the oil from
system.
• Higher efficiency, due to a lower heat loss to friction. Instead of fluid
friction, the main source of heat is parasitic drag.
• Improved damping in dynamic performance
• Higher speed capability
• Increased reliability
Application
• Common applications of foil bearings are
• micro-turbines
• cryogenic systems
• aircraft/industrial air systems
• Computer Hard disk drive
micro-turbines

Precision Positioning with slider air bearing foil bearings used on turbine shafts
Literature Review
 1. Structural Properties of Foil Bearings: A Closed-
Form Solution Validated with Finite Element
Analysis
(Piotr Hryniewicz, Michal Wodtke, Artur Olszewski & Romuald
Rzadkowski)
Boundary conditions used and the resulting reactions Hn, Vn, and Mn for three cases in pinned
and not-pinned conditions.

Flowchart of the solution procedure
for bump n. The procedure is repeated
for each bump in the bump strip.
A-no horizontal translation of the nodes at the right end
of the top foil
B-coupled displacements of the nodes at the left edge of
the top foil (same displacements for all the nodes),
C - pressure acting on the top surface of the top foil
D - no translation of the nodes at the bottom of the right
“foot” of bump number n max
E - no translation of the nodes at the bottom edge of the
substrate.
 Results: Compliance of bump n for the case presented in Le Lez et al
(2007)

Uniform load (PL = PR= 0.2 Linearly decreasing load (PL = 0.4
linearly increasing load
MPa). MPa, PR = 0).
(PL = 0, PR = 0.4 MPa).
Solid lines represent FEA results, Solid lines represent FEA results,
Solid lines represent FEA
dashed lines refer dashed lines refer to analytical
results, dashed
to analytical solutions. solutions.
lines refer to analytical solutions.
Conclusion
• Despite its simplicity, the proposed analytical model is in excellent
agreement with much more elaborate FEA models, with the largest
discrepancy observed for the first bump.
• Compliance of a bump in a bump strip is only affected by the bumps
located towards the free end of the bump strip and is not affected by the
bumps located towards the fixed end.
• Bending moment at the base of each analysed bump must be included in
the analysis. Assuming that the bending moment is zero may introduce
even a 100% error in the predicted bump compliance.
2. A Fully Coupled 3D Finite Element Analysis for a
Bump-type Compliant Foil Bearing
(Serdar Aksoy, M. Bulat Coskun, Mahmut F. Aksit)

• Fully coupled finite element approach is presented.

• The gas film is modelled by compressible Reynolds equation.
• The contact surfaces are modelled based on the augmented Lagrangian
method
• the destination boundary should have finer mesh than the source, and the
source should be defined stiffer than the destination
Hydrodynamic pressure distribution on the top foil of foil bearing
is illustrated with a DN number of 924000
 3. Analysis of gas foil bearings integrating FE top foil
models
(Luis San Andres, Tae Ho Kim)

• Author of this paper has discussed performance of GFBs depends largely

on the support elastic structure, i.e. a smooth foil on top of bump strips
• finite element models couple the elastic deformations of the 2D shell or 1D
beam-like top foil to the bump deflections as well as to the gas film
hydrodynamics
 4. Heavily Loaded Gas Foil Bearings: A Model
Anchored to Test Data
(Luis San Andres, Tae Ho Kim)

• The analysis couple the Reynolds equation for a

thin gas film to a simple elastic foundation model
for the top foil and bump foil.

• The bearing reaction forces and dynamic force

coefficients, stiffness and damping, are found by
integration of the zeroth- and first-order pressures
pressure field on the bearing surface.
 Results
• As the static load imposed on the foil bearing
increases, predictions show that the journal
centre displaces to eccentricities exceeding the
bearing nominal clearance
• Predicted minimum film thickness and journal
attitude angle demonstrate good agreement
with archival test data for a first-generation gas
FB.
• The predictions demonstrate that FBs have
greatly different static and dynamic force
characteristics when operating at journal
eccentricities in excess of the bearing
clearance from those obtained for operation at
low loads, i.e., small journal eccentricity.
Year Researchers Topic Publisher Observation
2013 J. Schiffmann, Foil Bearing Design ASME Journal of They provided
Z.S. Spakovszky Guidelines for Improved Tribology important design
Stability guidelines such as
bearing compliance,
optimum selective
shim
2008 Christopher Dellacorte, Design, Fabrication and Tribology It is shown there is a
Kevin Radil, Performance of open Source Transaction: Taylor & direct relationship
Robert Bruckner, Generation I and II Compliant Francis between complexity
Adam Howard Hydrodynamic Gas Foil of bearing elastic
Bearing support structure
and bearing
performance
Year Researchers Topic
2010 Kai Feng, Analytical Model od a Bump-
Shigehiko Kaneko Type Foil Bearing Using a
Link-Spring Structure and a
Finite-Element Shell Model
2003 Marc Carpino, A Fully Coupled Finite
Gita Talmage Element Formulation for
Elastically Supported Foil
Journal Bearing
Publisher Observation
ASME Journal of This paper presents
Tribology link-spring model of
bump foil which
incorporates friction
forces at contact and
forces between
bumps
Tribology This paper presents
Transaction: Taylor & a model which
Francis incorporates both
fluid and structural
effects in single FE
model.
Research Gap

• Foil bearing are hard to analyze as flexible foil surface deform and
changes shape while aerodynamic film pressure form.
• The research in the context of friction loss and wear of foil bearing is
limited.
• The optimization of foil bearing design parameters to improve bearing
characteristics is not investigated
• There is no fully coupled model using FSI present which encounters the
dynamic behavior of bearing.
• Very few researchers have considered the compressibility of air.
Aims & Objectives

Following are Objectives we will be investigating in this thesis.

• Create a fully coupled Finite element analysis model in MATLAB.
• Develop MATLAB code for Reynold’s equation and for structural domain
taking into account friction.
• Investigate optimization of the foil bearing design parameters to improve
bearing characteristics.
• The influence of the bearing design parameters such as bump pitch, bump
thickness, bump material, bump height is to be studied.
Methodology
• Develop MATLAB code for Compressible Reynold’s equation using
control volume formulation.
• Develop MATLAB code for Foil bearing structural model accounting
friction.
• Calculating frictional loses and load carrying capacity for different
design parameters.
• Perform optimisation using Gray relational Analysis (GRA) technique
with maximize load capacity and minimize friction coefficient as
objective criteria.
References
• Serdar Aksoy, M. Bulut Coskun, Mahmut F. Aksit a fully coupled 3d finite element
analysis for a bump-type compliant foil bearing Proceedings of the ASME/STLE 2011
International Joint Tribology Conference IJTC2011
• Luis San Andre´s, Tae Ho Kim Analysis of gas foil bearings integrating FE top foil
models.
• Piotr Hryniewicz, Michał Wodtke, Artur Olszewski, and Romuald Rzadkowski Structural
Properties of Foil Bearings: A Closed-Form solution Validated with Finite Element
Analysis DOI: 10.1080/10402000802687916
• C. DellaCorte, K. C. Radil, R. J. Bruckner and S. A. Howard (2008) Design, Fabrication,
and Performance of Open Source Generation I and II Compliant Hydrodynamic Gas Foil
Bearings, Tribology Transactions, 51:3, 254-264.
• J. Schiffmann and Z. S. Spakovszky (2013) Foil Bearing Design Guidelines for Improved
Stability, Journal of Tribology, 135, 011103-11.
• Qiu, M., Minson, B., Raeymaekers, B. (2013), “The effect of texture shape on the friction
coefficient and stiffness of gas-lubricated parallel slider bearings”, Tribology
International, 67, pp 278–288
• Etsion, I. (2005), “State of the Art in Laser Surface Texturing”, Journal of Tribology, 127,
pp 248-253
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
THANK YOU