Comparative test on two kinds of new compliant foil bearing for small cryogenic turbo-expander

Two kinds of new compliant foil journal bearing for a small cryogenic turbo-expander used in the Brayton cycle cryocooler are presented in this paper. The foil of bearings is supported with copper wires and elastic material respectively, so the bearings are much simpler in structure than previous compliant foil bearing. The performances of the bearings are studied under the same experiment conditions. The results indicate that both bearings have better damp performance and the foil bearing supported with elastic material has preferable stability to the one supported with copper wires.