Performance Analysis of Oil Lubricated Foil Bearing With Flexible Supported Back Spring Structure—Part II: Comparison of Predictions and Measured Test Data

Abstract

As described in Part I (Zhang et al., “Performance Analysis of Oil Lubricated Foil Bearing With Flexible Supported Back Spring Structure—Part I: Model Development and Numerical Investigation”, ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 136(11), p. 112501), a new type of multileaf oil lubricated foil bearing with flexible supported back spring structure was proposed and the characteristics were obtained by theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. Until now, nearly no paper about the modeling method and experimental verification for this type foil bearing published. So it is necessary to study the performance of this kind bearing by experiments. The experimental rig for the static and dynamic characteristics of the bearing was installed and the experiments were carried out. The stiffness of the back supported spring was measured. By employing the dynamic coefficients identification algorithm for oil foil bearing, the data acquisition delay was compensated. The load capacity, stiffness coefficients and damping coefficients were obtained. The load capacity resulting from the experiment was coincided with the theoretical simulation well. The stiffness and damping coefficients from the experiments had the similar tendency with those from the theoretical analysis. The stiffness coefficients obtained from experiments were coincided well with the numerical simulation results, and the difference of damping coefficients was a little bigger.