Modeling and analysis of a novel foil bearing characterized by the crossed wave strips structure

Abstract

Air foil bearing has been widely used in high speed industry and plays an increasingly important role. Non-uniform air pressure induced by foil deflection such as the sag effect between bumps has negative influence on the improvement of bearing capacity. In this paper, a novel foil bearing characterized by the crossed wave strips structure is proposed to reduce the sag effect and uniform the gas film pressure. Deformations of the top foil and the underlying crossed foil strips are calculated based on the curve shell model with the contact mechanics being applied to describe internal contact constraints on mating faces. The sag effect between adjacent bumps of this novel type foil bearing was quantitatively analyzed, which is proved to be effectively decreased by the proposed crossed wave trips. Mostly, the bearing load capacity is also evidently improved compared with the traditional bump foil bearing.