Effect of misalignment on the durability of gas-lubricated foil thrust bearing

Abstract EN

The present study aims to evaluate the effects of static and dynamic angular misalignments of the runner surface on the performance of a gas-lubricated foil thrust bearing.

The responses of the bearing load capacity, viscous power loss, and the stiffness and damping coefficients of the gas film to small angular misalignments are thoroughly analyzed.

The compressible Reynolds equation along with the Couette Approximation technique is used to model the flow in the gas film.

The deformation of the compliant bearing is calculated with a robust analytical model, and small perturbations method is used to calculate the dynamic coefficients of the gas film.

The results show that misaligned foil thrust bearings are capable of developing a restoring moment sufficient enough to withstand the imposed mechanical distortions.

Furthermore, the enhanced hydrodynamic effect ensures a stable operation of the misaligned foil thrust bearing at very thin gas films.