Evaluation of Lubrication Performance of Foil Bearings with New Texturing

Abstract

Foil bearings have excellent characteristics such as a high damping performance and acceptable dimensional changes caused by installation errors and thermal expansion. However, the problem of large friction losses also occurs at the top foil under the high rotational speed required to support a shaft without any contact. In this paper, a new type of foil bearing with a surface texture on the top foil is proposed. The effects of the texture were verified by the rotational motion experimental analysis under a high circumferential speed and dry lubrication. For a bearing with dimples on the contact area, the effect of friction reduction could be observed under boundary lubrication. Moreover, it was also confirmed that the dimples adversely affected the air film formation with the sliding speed increase. For a newly designed F-grooved model, the phenomenon of an early transition from boundary lubrication to fluid lubrication can be seen. However, the friction coefficient increases at the boundary lubrication. In this study, it was also the highest friction reduction effect was confirmed at the maximum sliding speed. Furthermore, an additional friction reduction effect and a small temperature rise were obtained by combining the above textures.