Research on Auxiliary Bearing Structure With Buffer Shim Based on LS-DYNA for Helium Circulator of HTR-10

The active magnetic bearing (AMB) is introduced to the helium circulator of the 10 MW high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR-10). Auxiliary bearing bears huge instantaneous impact load when the AMB fails to work in the helium circulator. The huge load may cause serious damage to the auxiliary bearing. In order to reduce the impact load and protect the AMB and rotor system, a new type of auxiliary bearing with axial buffer shim is presented in this paper. There are two different structures of auxiliary bearing to be studied in the paper. One is the auxiliary bearing with the buffer shim and another one is without the buffer shim. The finite element method and LS-DYNA software are applied to analyze the structure characteristic of the auxiliary bearing. The rotor dropping trajectory and the stress distribution of the auxiliary bearing are analyzed by comparing two different auxiliary bearing structures during the rotor drop. The stress change of the auxiliary bearing in each impact course is mainly studied, and the law of stress variation in impact course is analyzed. Besides, the stress distribution and deformation of two auxiliary bearing is the focus research when impact force is maximum in the paper. Finally, the research shows the auxiliary bearing structure without the buffer shim can bear the huge impact of the rotor drop, and the addition of buffer shim can also reduce the damage of the rotor drop to the auxiliary bearing structure. These researches’ result provides an important reference for the experiment of rotor drop, and has laid a theoretical foundation for the practical application of this structure.