Identification of stiffness and damping characteristics of axial air-foil bearings

Air-foil bearings (AFBs) are self acting hydrodynamic bearings made from sheet metal foils comprised of at least two layers. The innermost "top foil" layer traps a gas pressure film that supports a load while the layer or layers underneath provide an elastic foundation. AFBs are currently used in many commercial applications, both terrestrial and in aerospace. AFBs provide a means to eliminate the oil system leading to reduce weight and enhanced temperature capability. Regardless of the application of the AFBs, the identification of the structural characteristics is important for successful design practice. In the present work, structural characteristics (stiffness and damping) of axial AFBs are indentified in the light of experimental results. Due to the initial high torque requirement of the AFB, the experimental setup using a single AFB is proposed instead of standard two-foil bearing setups. Experiments are carried out at maximum speed of 60,000 rpm. Sub-structuring approach is used for identification of the structural (stiffness and damping) characteristics of the AFB. The results have shown that the developed experimental procedure is able to identify the stiffness and damping characteristics of axial AFBs accurately.