Dynamic stability experiments of compliant foil thrust bearing with viscoelastic support

In order to reduce the complexity of machine construction and improve the mechanical efficiency, high speed rotation machineries usually implement self-acting gas bearings to substitute the traditional oil-lubricated bearings. This paper presents test results of a gas thrust bearing with viscoelastic support which is designed for high speed turbo-machinery. The gas bearing, which belongs to compliant foil bearings, consists of a top thin metal foil and a bottom thin rubber foil. Static and stability experiments are conducted on a high speed gas turbine test rig. The static results indicate that the structural stiffness of test bearing generally increases with the increase in axial load and the decrease in thickness of bottom foil. In the rotation tests, rotor runs stably with small vibration amplitude, which is dominant in waterfall plot during whole speed up procedure. It shows that test bearing has preferable stability characteristics for high speed gas turbines.