Characterization and Measurement of Hybrid Gas Journal Bearings

Tom Marquis Lawrence, Purdue University

Abstract

This thesis concentrates on the study of hybrid gas journal bearings (bearings with externally pressurized mass addition). It differs from most work in that it goes back to "basics" to explore the hydrodynamic phenomena in the bearing gap. The thesis compares geometrically identical bearings with 2 configurations of external pressurization, porous liners where mass-addition compensation is varied by varying the liner's permeability, and bushings with 2 rows of 6 feedholes where the mass-addition compensation is varied by the feedhole diameter. Experimentally, prototype bearings with mass-addition compensation that spans 2 orders of magnitude with differing clearances are built and their aerostatic properties and mass addition characteristics are thoroughly tested. The fundamental equations for compressible, laminar, Poiseuille flow are used to suggest how the mass flow "compensation" should be mathematically modeled. This is back-checked against the experimental mass flow measurements and is used to determine a mass-addition compensation parameter (called Kmeas) for each prototype bushing. In so doing, the methodology of modeling and measuring the mass addition in a hybrid gas bearing is re-examined and an innovative, practical, and simple method is found that makes it possible to make an "apples-to-apples" comparison between different configurations of external pressurization. This mass addition model is used in conjunction with the Reynolds equation to perform theory-based numerical analysis of virtual hybrid gas journal bearings (CFD experiments). The first CFD experiments performed use virtual bearings modeled to be identical to the experimental prototypes and replicate the experimental work. The results are compared and the CFD model is validated. The ontological significance of appropriate dimensionless similitude parameters is re-examined and a, previously lacking, complete set of similitude factors is found for hybrid bearings. A new practical method is developed to study in unprecedented detail the aerostatic component of the hybrid bearings. It is used to definitively compare the feedhole bearings to the porous liner bearings. The hydrostatic bearing efficiency (HBE) is defined and it is determined that the maximum achievable hydrostatic bearing efficiency (MAHBE) is determined solely by the bearing's mass addition configuration. The MAHBE of the porous liner bearings is determined to be over 5 times that of the feedhole bearings. The method also presents a means to tune the Kmeas to the clearance to achieve the MAHBE as well as giving a complete mapping of the hitherto misunderstood complex shapes of aerostatic load versus radial deflection curves. This method also rediscovers the obscure phenomenon of static instability which is called in this thesis the "near surface effect" and appears to be the first work to present a practical method to predict the range of static instability and quantify its resultant stiffness fall-off. It determines that porous liner type bearings are not subject to the phenomenon which appears for feedhole type bearings when the clearance exceeds a critical value relative to its mass-addition compensation. The standing pressure waves of hydrostatic and hybrid bearings with the 2 configurations of external pressurization as well as a geometrically identical hydrodynamic bearing are studied in detail under the methodology of the "CFD microscope". This method is used to characterize and identify the development, growth, and movement of the pressure wave extrema with increased hydrodynamic action (either increasing speed or increasing eccentricity). This method is also used to determine the "cause" of the "near surface effect". A gedanken experiment is performed based on these results which indicates that a bearing with a "stronger aerostatic strength" component should be more stable than one with a low aerostatic strength component. Numerical instability "speed limits" are found that are also related to the hydrostatic strength of the bearing. The local conditions in the standing waves are characterized in terms of their local Mach number, Knudsen number, Reynolds number, and Taylor Number. It is concluded that low eccentricity bearing whirl can be attributed to the off load-line orientation of the bearing load force caused by the overlay of the hydrodynamic bearing standing wave onto the hydrostatic bearing wave of the hybrid bearing, whereas it is hypothesized that aperiodic and random self-excited vibration which occurs at high eccentricity, as reported in the literature, is probably due to shock waves, turbulence, near surface effect, and slip at local areas of the standing wave.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Kemple, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Mechanical engineering|Plasma physics

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