Dynamic characteristics of a flexible rotor system supported by a viscoelastic foil bearing (VEFB)

Foil bearings have been considered as an alternative to traditional bearings with the increasing need for high-speed, high-temperature turbomachinery. However, the lack of adequate load capacity and sufficient damping capacity is a key technical hurdle to super-bending-critical operation as well as widespread use of foil bearings in turbomachinery such as turbopumps, turbocompressors and turbochargers. A new foil bearing, ViscoElastic Foil Bearing (VEFB) is suggested in this paper. The super-bending-critical operation of the conventional bump foil bearing and the VEFB is examined, as well as the structural dynamic characteristics. The structural dynamic test results show that the equivalent viscous damping of the VEFB is much larger than that of the bump bearing and that the structural dynamic stiffness of the VEFB is comparable or larger than that of the bump bearing. The results of superbending-critical operation of the VEFB indicate that the enhanced structural damping of the viscoelastic foil dramatically reduces the vibration near the bending critical speed. With the help of increased damping resulting from the viscoelasticity, suppression of the nonsynchronous orbit is possible beyond the bending critical speed. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.