Abstract
Gas foil bearings are gaining popularity for their compliance properties in various high-speed turbomachinery applications such as air cycle machine, turbocompressor, turbocharger, turboexpander etc. A modest attempt is made in the current research to study the feasibility of gas foil bearing for a turboexpander rotating at 1,75,000 rpm. The turboexpander rotor with 16 mm diameter and 91 mm length used for experimentation is supported by a pair of gas foil journal bearings and mounted with turbine and compressor wheels at both ends of the rotor. The feasibility study was performed based on comparison of rotodynamic analysis and experimental data for the critical speed of the rotor and unbalance response at bearing locations. The critical speeds and the unbalance response are predicted using the finite element analysis, which takes into account the gyroscopic effect, shear deformation, internal damping, inertia of the rotor and the dynamic coefficients of the gas foil bearing. The predicted and experimental variation of critical speed is found to be within a relative error of 3–6%; similarly, the variation of unbalance response was found with a relative error of 2–9%. The low relative errors suggest that the experiment and prediction methodology are credible. The author believes that the rotodynamic analysis methodology will be quite valuable for researchers working in the area of high-speed rotors supported with gas foil bearings.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- \([M_{e}^{T} ]_{S}\) :
-
Translatory mass matrix of the shaft
- \([M_{e}^{R} ]_{S}\) :
-
Rotary mass matrix of the shaft
- \({[}G_{e} {]}_{S}\) :
-
Gyroscopic matrix of the shaft
- \([K_{e} ]_{S}\) :
-
Stiffness matrix of the shaft
- \(\{ F_{e} \}_{S}\) :
-
Generalized force vector of the shaft element
- \([M_{e} ]_{D}\) :
-
Mass matrix of the disc
- \({[}G_{e} {]}_{D}\) :
-
Gyroscopic matrix of the disc
- \(\{ F_{e} \}_{D}\) :
-
Generalized force vector of the disk element
- \(q\) :
-
Displacement vector
- \(u\) :
-
Displacement of node in X direction
- \(v\) :
-
Displacement of node in X direction
- \({[}C{]}_{B}\) :
-
Damping matrix of the bearing
- \([K]_{B}\) :
-
Stiffness matrix of the bearing
- \(\{ F_{e} \}_{B}\) :
-
Generalized force vector of the bearing
- \(\left[ M \right]\) :
-
Global mass matrix
- \(\left[ C \right]\) :
-
Global damping matrix
- \(\left[ K \right]\) :
-
Global stiffness matrix
- \(\{ F\}\) :
-
Global force vector
- \(\omega\) :
-
Angular velocity
- \(\xi\) :
-
Rotational displacement of node about X direction
- \(\psi\) :
-
Rotational displacement of node about Y direction
References
DellaCorte C, Zaldana A R and Radil K C 2004 A systems approach to the solid lubrication of foil air bearings for oil-free turbomachinery. J. Trib. 126: 200–207
Waumans T, Peirs J, Al-Bender F and Reynaerts D 2011 Aerodynamic journal bearing with a flexible, damped support operating at 7.2 million DN. J. Micromech. Microeng. 21: 104014
Pattnayak M R, Dutt J K and Pandey R K 2022 Rotordynamics of an accelerating rotor supported on aerodynamic journal bearings. Tribol. Int. 176: 107883
Li L, Zhang D and Xie Y 2019 Effect of misalignment on the dynamic characteristic of MEMS gas bearing considering rarefaction effect. Tribol. Int. 139: 22–35
Yang Q, Liu Y and Zhang H 2016 Unbalance response of micro gas bearing-rotor system considering rarefaction effect. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part J J. Eng. Tribol. 230: 281–288
Zhang W M, Meng G and Wei K X 2012 Numerical prediction of surface roughness effect on slip flow in gas-lubricated journal microbearings. Tribol. Trans. 55: 71–76
Pattnayak M R, Pandey R K and Dutt J K 2020 Performance behaviours of a self-acting gas journal bearing with a new bore design. Tribol. Int. 151: 106418
Pattnayak M R, Pandey R K and Dutt J K 2021 Effects of new micro-pocketed bore surface topographies on the performance behaviours of aerodynamic journal bearing. Surf. Topogr. Metrol. Prop. 9: 025001
Liu W, Bättig P, Wagner P H and Schiffmann J 2021 Nonlinear study on a rigid rotor supported by herringbone grooved gas bearings: Theory and validation. Mech. Syst. Signal Process. 146: 106983
Miyanaga N and Tomioka J 2015 Stability analysis of Herringbone-grooved aerodynamic journal bearings for ultra high-speed rotations. Int. J. Mater. Mech. Manuf. 4: 156–161
Schiffmann J 2013 Enhanced groove geometry for herringbone grooved journal bearings. J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power. 135: 102501
Schiffmann J and Favrat D 2010 Integrated design and optimization of gas bearing supported rotors. J. Mech. Des. 132: 051007
Pattnayak M R, Ganai P, Pandey R K, Dutt J K and Fillon M 2022 An overview and assessment on aerodynamic journal bearings with important findings and scope for explorations. Tribol. Int. 174: 107778
Hayashi K and Hirasata K 1995 Developments of aerodynamic foil bearings for small high-speed rotor. Tribol. Ser. 30: 291–299
Walton J F and Heshmat H 1994 Compliant foil bearings for use in cryogenic turbopumps. NASA CP 3282(1): 372–381
Xiong L Y, Wu G, Hou Y, Liu L Q, Ling M F and Chen C Z 1997 Development of aerodynamic foil journal bearings for a high speed cryogenic turboexpander. Cryogenics. 37: 221–230
Hou Y, Xiong L Y, Wang J, Lin M F and Chen C Z 2000 The experimental study of aerodynamic plate-foil journal bearings for High Speed Cryogenic Turboexpander. Tribol. Trans. 43: 681–684
Walton J F and Hesmat H 2002 Application of foil bearings to turbomachinery including vertical operation. J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power. 124: 1032–1041
Hou Y, Zhu Z H and Chen C Z 2004 Comparative test on two kinds of new compliant foil bearing for small cryogenic turbo-expander. Cryogenics. 44: 69–72
Lai T, Chen S, Ma B, Zheng Y and Hou Y 2014 Effects of bearing clearance and supporting stiffness on performances of rotor-bearing system with multi-decked protuberant gas foil journal bearing. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part J J. Eng. Tribol. 228: 780–788
Lai T, Guo Y, Zhao Q, Wang Y, Zhang X and Hou Y 2018 Numerical and experimental studies on stability of cryogenic turbo-expander with protuberant foil gas bearings. Cryogenics. 96: 62–74
Özşahin O, Özgüven H N and Budak E 2014 Analytical modeling of asymmetric multi-segment rotor-bearing systems with Timoshenko beam model including gyroscopic moments. Comput. Struct. 144: 119–126
Nikolajsen J L 2001 Finite element and transfer matrix methods for rotordynamics: A comparison. In: ASME Turbo Expo: Power for Land, Sea, and Air, pp. V004T03A002
Jalali M H, Ghayour M, Ziaei-Rad S and Shahriari B 2014 Dynamic analysis of a high speed rotor-bearing system. Measurement. 53: 1–9
Han D, Bi C and Yang J 2019 Nonlinear dynamic behavior research on high-speed turbo-expander refrigerator rotor. Eng. Fail. Anal. 96: 484–495
Friswell M I 2010 Dynamics of Rotating Machines. Cambridge University Press, New York
Khamari D S, Kumar J and Behera S K 2021 Numerical investigation of influence sensitivity of a gas foil bearing parameters on the dynamic coefficients. J. Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 43: 1–19
Das A S and Dutt J K 2008 Reduced model of a rotor-shaft system using modified SEREP. Mech. Res. Commun. 35: 398–407
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest to any person or organization.
Appendix
Appendix
1.1 A.1. Shaft element matrices
Where,
1.2 A.2. Bearing matrices
1.3 A.3. Disc matrices
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khamari, D.S., Behera, S.K. Numerical and experimental studies on feasibility of a cryogenic turboexpander rotor supported on gas foil bearings. Sādhanā 48, 224 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-023-02298-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-023-02298-7