Effect of cooling flow on thermal performance of a gas foil bearing floating on a hot rotor

Abstract

This paper presents the measurements of the thermal behavior of a gas foil bearing (GFB) floating on a hot rotor in a tangential air injection cooling scheme. The cooling air was tangentially injected against rotor spinning into the inlet mixing zone of the test GFB. The hollow rotor was heated by a cartridge heater. The GFB temperatures were measured at intervals of 30 deg along the circumference of the axial center except for at 45 deg, where the cooling flow is injected. The rotor temperatures were measured near the GFB side ends using an infrared thermometer, which was calibrated with a thermocouple. Load cells measure the static load and bearing torque. The baseline rotor temperature was measured without GFB over the axial length at rotor speeds up to 15 krpm and for increasing heater temperatures up to 400 degrees C. The results showed relatively uniform rotor temperatures at the test journal GFB section, and severe heat convections on the rotor surfaces. The GFB and rotor temperatures were measured under a static load of 80 N for increasing heater temperatures of 100 degrees C, 200 degrees C, 300 degrees C and 400 degrees C and with increasing cooling flow rates of 100 liter/min, 150 liter/min, and 200 liter/min. The circumferential GFB temperatures showed the maximum temperatures at the loaded zone and the minimum temperatures in the unloaded zone. The increasing cooling flow effectively reduced both the rotor and GFB temperatures, showing a dramatic decrease with the smallest amount of cooling flow. GFB friction torque was measured for two test cases for the static load of 80 N at a rotor speed of 10 krpm: 1) A lift-off and touch-down operating cycle for increasing heater temperatures without the cooling flow, and 2) a continuous operation for the heater temperature of 400 degrees C with increasing cooling flows. In test case 1, the GFB friction torque decreased for higher heater temperatures due to a larger thermal expansion of the bearing housing than the rotor's. In test case 2, the GFB friction torque decreased with increasing cooling flows due to strong cooling effects on the rotor temperature. The results imply that the tangential air injection increased the GFB clearance by directly cooling the rotor and effectively alleviating the rotor expansion; hence, the scheme is capable of an effective cooling for high temperature GFB applications, such as micro gas turbines.