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At least 217 records · Page 12

Journal and Wave Bearing Impedance Calculation Software

The wave bearing software suite is a MALTA application that computes bearing properties for user-specified wave bearing conditions, as well as plain journal bearings. Wave bearings are fluid film journal bearings with multi-lobed wave patterns around the circumference of the bearing surface. In this software suite, the dynamic coefficients are outputted in a way for easy implementation in a finite element model used in rotor dynamics analysis. The software has a graphical user interface (GUI) for inputting bearing geometry parameters, and uses MATLAB s structure interface for ease of interpreting data. This innovation was developed to provide the stiffness and damping components of wave bearing impedances. The computational method for computing bearing coefficients was originally designed for plain journal bearings and tilting pad bearings. Modifications to include a wave bearing profile consisted of changing the film thickness profile given by an equation, and writing an algorithm to locate the integration limits for each fluid region. Careful consideration was needed to implement the correct integration limits while computing the dynamic coefficients, depending on the form of the input/output variables specified in the algorithm.

Hanford, Amanda↗

High temperature solid lubricants: When and where to use them

The state of the art of solid lubrication for moderate to extremely high temperature lubrication (to 1600 F) is reviewed. Lubricating characteristics, stability in various environments, and relevant machine design considerations are discussed. Lubricating materials discussed include the layer lattice compounds: MoS2, WS2, graphite and graphite fluoride, the high temperature polyimide polymer, and calcium fluoride based coating and composites. The scope of the information includes results from wear testers, ball bearing, and journal bearings.

Sliney, H. E.↗

High temperature solid lubricants - When and where to use them.

This paper reviews the state of the art of solid lubrication for moderate to extremely high temperature lubrication (to 1600 F). Lubricating characteristics, stability in various environments, and relevant machine design considerations are discussed. Lubricating materials discussed include MoS2, WS2, graphite, graphite fluoride, the high temperature polymide polymer, and calcium fluoride based coatings and composites. The scope of the information includes results from wear testers, ball bearings, and journal bearings.

Sliney, H. E.↗

Gas-lubricated foil bearings for high speed turboalternator - Construction and performance

Foil bearings were designed and fabricated to replace pivoted-shoe journal bearings in a Brayton cycle turboalternator, within space limitations and constraints imposed by the existing machine. The foil bearings were integrated into a unified assembly with the rotor, housing, seals, and gimbal-mounted thrust bearing, without changes and modifications of machine components other than the journal bearings. The gas-lubricated foil bearings, which require no external pressure-source, furnished a stable support for a 21.9 pound rotor in the vertical attitude at speeds to 43,200 rpm. Excellent wipe-wear characteristics permitted well over 1000 start-stop cycles, without deterioration of performance in the entire speed range. The paper reviews salient aspects of design, fabrication, and performance. An account is given of rotor dynamics during starting, stopping, and traversing the region of resonances. The state of journal and foil surfaces is examined following intensive start-stop cycling and high-speed runs over extended periods of time.

Licht, L.↗

A technique to measure rotordynamic coefficients in hydrostatic bearings

An experimental technique is described for measuring the rotordynamic coefficients of fluid film journal bearings. The bearing tester incorporates a double-spool shaft assembly that permits independent control over the journal spin speed and the frequency of an adjustable-magnitude circular orbit. This configuration yields data that enables determination of the full linear anisotropic rotordynamic coefficient matrices. The dynamic force measurements were made simultaneously with two independent systems, one with piezoelectric load cells and the other with strain gage load cells. Some results are presented for a four-recess, oil-fed hydrostatic journal bearing.

Capaldi, Russell J.↗

Measurement of interstage fluid-annulus dynamical properties

The work described in this paper is part of an Electric Power Research Institute sponsored effort to improve rotor vibrational performance on power plant feed water pumps. A major objective of this effort is to reduce vibration levels by devising inter-stage sealing configurations with optimized damping capacity, realizing that the typical multi-stage centrifugal pump has several ore inter-stage fluid annuli than it has journal bearings. Also, the fluid annuli are distributed between the journal bearings where vibration levels are highest and can therefore be 'exercised' more as dampers than can the bearings. Described in this paper is a test apparatus which has been built to experimentally determine fluid-annulus dynamical coefficients for various configurations of inter-stage sealing geometry.

Adams, M. L.↗

Design and fabrication of gas bearings for Brayton cycle rotating unit

Analysis, design, and testing of two types of pivoted pad journal bearings and a spiral-grooved thrust bearing suitable for direct installation into the NASA 2 to 15 KW Brayton Cycle Rotating Unit (BRU) have been accomplished. Both types of tilting pad bearing assemblies are of the preloaded type, consisting of three pads with one pad flexibly mounted. One type utilizes a non-conforming pivot, while the other replaces the conventional spherical pivot with a cruciform flexible member. The thrust bearing is flexure mounted to accommodate static machine mislinement. Test results indicate that both types of journal bearings should satisfy the requirements imposed by the BRU. Hydrostatic tests of the spiral-grooved thrust bearing showed it to be free of pneumatic hammer with as many as 24 orifices over the BRU pressure and load range.

Frost, A.↗

Nonlinear transient analysis of multi-mass flexible rotors - theory and applications

The equations of motion necessary to compute the transient response of multi-mass flexible rotors are formulated to include unbalance, rotor acceleration, and flexible damped nonlinear bearing stations. A method of calculating the unbalance response of flexible rotors from a modified Myklestad-Prohl technique is discussed in connection with the method of solution for the transient response. Several special cases of simplified rotor-bearing systems are presented and analyzed for steady-state response, stability, and transient behavior. These simplified rotor models produce extensive design information necessary to insure stable performance to elastic mounted rotor-bearing systems under varying levels and forms of excitation. The nonlinear journal bearing force expressions derived from the short bearing approximation are utilized in the study of the stability and transient response of the floating bush squeeze damper support system. Both rigid and flexible rotor models are studied, and results indicate that the stability of flexible rotors supported by journal bearings can be greatly improved by the use of squeeze damper supports. Results from linearized stability studies of flexible rotors indicate that a tuned support system can greatly improve the performance of the units from the standpoint of unbalanced response and impact loading. Extensive stability and design charts may be readily produced for given rotor specifications by the computer codes presented in this analysis.

Kirk, R. G.↗

Performance of Simple Gas Foil Thrust Bearings in Air

Foil bearings are self-acting hydrodynamics devices used to support high speed rotating machinery. The advantages that they offer to process fluid lubricated machines include: high rotational speed capability, no auxiliary lubrication system, non-contacting high speed operation, and improved damping as compared to rigid hydrodynamic bearings. NASA has had a sporadic research program in this technology for almost 6 decades. Advances in the technology and understanding of foil journal bearings have enabled several new commercial products in recent years. These products include oil-free turbochargers for both heavy trucks and automobiles, high speed electric motors, microturbines for distributed power generation, and turbojet engines. However, the foil thrust bearing has not received a complimentary level of research and therefore has become the weak link of oil-free turbomachinery. In an effort to both provide machine designers with basic performance parameters and to elucidate the underlying physics of foil thrust bearings, NASA Glenn Research Center has completed an effort to experimentally measure the performance of simple gas foil thrust bearing in air. The database includes simple bump foil supported thrust bearings with full geometry and manufacturing techniques available to the user. Test conditions consist of air at ambient pressure and temperatures up to 500 C and rotational speeds to 55,000 rpm. A complete set of axial load, frictional torque, and rotational speed is presented for two different compliant sub-structures and inter-pad gaps. Data obtained from commercially available foil thrust bearings both with and without active cooling is presented for comparison. A significant observation made possible by this data set is the speed-load capacity characteristic of foil thrust bearings. Whereas for the foil journal bearing the load capacity increases linearly with rotational speed, the foil thrust bearing operates in the hydrodynamic high speed limit. In this case, the load capacity is constant and in fact often decreases with speed if other factors such as thermal conditions and runner distortions are permitted to dominate the bearing performance.

Bruckner, Robert J.↗

Hydrodynamic Analyses and Evaluation of New Fluid Film Bearing Concepts

Over the past several years, numerical and experimental investigations have been performed on a waved journal bearing. The research work was undertaken by Dr. Florin Dimofte, a Senior Research Associate in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Toledo. Dr. Theo Keith, Distinguished University Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department was the Technical Coordinator of the project. The wave journal bearing is a bearing with a slight but precise variation in its circular profile such that a waved profile is circumscribed on the inner bearing diameter. The profile has a wave amplitude that is equal to a fraction of the bearing clearance. Prior to this period of research on the wave bearing, computer codes were written and an experimental facility was established. During this period of research considerable effort was directed towards the study of the bearing's stability. The previously developed computer codes and the experimental facility were of critical importance in performing this stability research. A collection of papers and reports were written to describe the results of this work. The attached captures that effort and represents the research output during the grant period.

Keith, Theo G., Jr.↗

Rheology in lubrication

The rheological effects on lubrication are discussed. The types of lubrication considered are thick film hydrodynamic lubrication and thin film elastohydrodynamic lubrication. The temperature-viscosity, viscoelastic, shear-thinning, and normal stess effects on the lubrication of journal bearings are analyzed. A graph of the pressure distribution of viscoelastic liquids in journal bearings is provided. Mathematical models are developed to define the effects of various properties of the lubricants on friction reduction.

Cheng, H. S.↗

Effects of vibration and shock on the performance of gas-bearing space-power Brayton cycle turbomachinery. Part 4: Suppression of rotor-bearing system vibrations through flexible bearing support damping

A bearing damper, operating on the support flexure of a pivoted pad in a tilting-pad type gas-lubricated journal bearing, has been designed, built, and tested under externally-applied random vibrations. The NASA Brayton Rotating Unit (BRU), a 36,000 rpm, 10-Kwe turbogenerator had previously been subjected in the MTI Vibration Test Laboratory to external random vibrations, and vibration response data had been recorded and analyzed for amplitude distribution and frequency content at a number of locations in the machine. Based on data from that evaluation, a piston-type damper was designed and developed for each of the two flexibly-supported journal bearing pads (one in each of the two three-pad bearings). A modified BRU, with dampers installed, has been re-tested under random vibration conditions. Root-mean-square vibration amplitudes were determined from the test data, and displacement power spectral density analyses have been performed. Results of these data reduction efforts have been compared with vibration tolerance limits. Results of the tests indicate significant reductions in vibration levels in the bearing gas-lubricant films, particularly in the rigidly-mounted pads. The utility of the gas-lubricated damper for limiting rotor-bearing system vibrations in high-speed turbomachinery has thus been demonstrated.

Tessarzik, J. M.↗