Research On The Performance Of Bionic Gas Bump Foil Thrust Bearing

Gas bump foil bearing is a kind of elastic bearing, which is classified according to the direction of load. Gas bump foil bearing is widely applied in High speed rotating machinery. There is less information about thrust gas bump foil bearing since the concerning research started late. Since the foil of the bearing wears heavily, the life of the bearing is short. The author proposes a new kind of bionic thrust gas bump foil bearing which refers to lubricating property of the lotus leaf surface. The author plan to take advantage of extra dynamic pressure effect of surface texture to solve the problem.The research method combines theory with experiment. The mathematical model of the bearing has been built, including film thickness and Reynolds equation, considering elastic deformation and micro surface profile. Then we get bearing gas pressure distribution through numerical calculation with Matlab. Effects of area density and depth of the rectangular dimple on bearing load are theoretically investigated. The results show that appropriate surface texture on flat foil can produce extra hydrodynamic lubrication effect, and rectangular dimple depth and area density have an obvious effect on bearing load, while there is almost no effect of rectangular dimple length-width ratio on bearing load. Then the author use Micro electrochemical machining method to process surface on static top foil, and the quality of surface texture is basically satisfied. At last, the author performed experimental research of the bearing, building the experiment table, getting the friction torque and axial displacement of the bearing.