A Systems Approach to the Solid Lubrication of Foil Air Bearings for Oil-Free Turbomachinery

Download or read book A Systems Approach to the Solid Lubrication of Foil Air Bearings for Oil-Free Turbomachinery written by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-06-20 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foil air bearings are self-acting hydrodynamic bearings which rely upon solid lubricants to reduce friction and minimize wear during sliding which occurs at start-up and shut-down when surface speeds are too low to allow the formation of a hydrodynamic air film. This solid lubrication is typically accomplished by coating the non-moving foil surface with a thin, soft polymeric film. The following paper introduces a systems approach in which the solid lubrication is provided by a combination of self lubricating shaft coatings coupled with various wear resistant and lubricating foil coatings. The use of multiple materials, each providing different functions is modeled after oil-lubricated hydrodynamic sleeve bearing technology which utilizes various coatings and surface treatments in conjunction with oil lubricants to achieve optimum performance. In this study, room temperature load capacity tests are performed on journal foil air bearings operating at 14,000 rpm. Different shaft and foil coating technologies such as plasma sprayed composites, ceramic, polymer and inorganic lubricant coatings are evaluated as foil bearing lubricants. The results indicate that bearing performance is improved through the individual use of the lubricants and treatments tested. Further, combining several solid lubricants together yielded synergistically better results than any material alone. DellaCorte, Christopher and Zaldana, Antonio R. and Radil, Kevin C. Glenn Research Center NASA/TM-2002-211482, NAS 1.15:211482, E-13250, ARL-TR-2867