Vibration Characteristics of a 75kW Turbo Machine With Air Foil Bearings

Air foil bearings are very attractive bearing systems for turbomachinery because they have several advantages over conventional bearings in terms of oil-free environment, low power loss, long life, and no maintenance. However, most of the developed machines using air foil bearings are limited to small and high-speed rotors of 60,000–120,000 rpm, since the increase in power of turbomachinery requires lower rotor speed and greater loading in bearings, which makes it difficult to use air foil bearings for large machines. In this paper, a 75 kW turboblower using air foil bearings is introduced, and the vibration characteristics of the machine have been investigated experimentally under a wide range of operating conditions, including compressor surge in the performance test. The machine is designed to be fully air lubricated and air cooled, and its operating speed is 20,000–26,000 rpm with maximum pressure ratio of 1.8. The results show that the air foil bearings offer adequate damping to ensure dynamically stable operation in the whole range.