Tianwei Lai

The liquid-lubricated spiral-grooved thrust bearing is widely applied in rotational devices with high speed. In the bearing, hydrodynamic effect induced cavitation and axial clearance undulation interact with each other. The load capacity, friction torque, stiffness, and other bearing parameters oscillate with the periodic undulation of clearance. The oscillation of bearing performance induces instability of high rotational speed devices, which can lead to serious mechanical failure. In this investigation, the coupling effect of cavitation and sinusoidal oscillating clearance on high-speed spiral-grooved thrust bearing performance is numerically researched. The influence of vibration period, clearance amplitude, and equilibrium clearance height on bearing performance is acquired by comparison. The load capacity, friction torque, and other parameters are dealt with by fast Fourier transform, wavelet transform, and Hilbert-Huang transform. The transient, frequency, and time-frequency characteristics of bearing performances are analyzed and compared. According to the analytical results of the load capacity, the influence extent of these three vibration factors on the bearing performance is evaluated. The structure of herringbone spiral grooved thrust bearing should be optimized to acquire better load and cavitation performances under vibration conditions.

In high-speed motors, there is a huge amount of heat generation from core and winding losses, which may result in thermal failures or motor performance deterioration. In the prevention of heat accumulation, efficient cooling technology is critical for smooth and reliable motor movement. This paper summarizes the diverse application of high-speed motor and thermal requirements, such as in electrical devices, turbo-machinery, and high-precision machine tools. Three paths of case convection—cooling, internal ventilation cooling and spindle core cooling—are analyzed. Methods for configuring thermal resistance and improving cooling efficiency are summarized. Among them, coolant flow characteristics and flow channel shapes, gas supply ventilation systems, and methods to reduce air resistance, as well as axial cooling and integrated heat pipe structures, are extensively investigated. Finally, the development prospects of high-speed motor cooling are also forecasted. At present, the primary research directions are to reduce the heat generated by the heat source, utilize the latent heat of the coolant, optimize the cooling flow path of the shell, design an axial air-cooling circulation system, and enhance the heat dissipation of the spindle.

In liquid hydrogen (LH₂) delivery, submersible centrifugal pump is an important device. Its reliability and efficiency rely on the stability of the bearings. In a high‐speed range, cavitation occurs due to the hydrodynamic effect induced pressure undulation. Compared with other cryogenic fluids, cavitation in LH₂ is prone to happen due to its special properties. In this paper, a cavitation model considering thermal properties of LH₂ is proposed based on Rayleigh–Plesset equation. Cavitation characteristics are studied in spiral grooved thrust bearing (SGTB) lubricated by LH₂. The effect of cavitation on load capacity and friction torque are investigated. The most severely‐eroded location is predicted by the distribution of mass transfer rate. The influence of bearing structure parameters is studied in respect of cavitation, load capacity and friction torque. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) and range analysis results may provide a reference for optimising LH₂ lubricated SGTB.

Under high-temperature conditions, heat evacuation of foil bearing has a significant impact on bearing performance, including loading performance and reliability. During bearing operation, viscous dissipative heat in the lubricant gas film is the main source of heat generation. For foil bearings, enhancing the heat evacuation efficiency is essential to extend the bearing service life in high-temperature environments. For heat evacuation, foil-side cooling is a very effective method. For more in-depth analysis of thermal characteristics of the foil bearing, a three-dimensional (3D) thermal-elasto-hydrodynamic (TEHD) coupling model of multi-leaf thrust foil bearing (MLTFB) with cooling channel is established in this paper. In view of the good heat transfer performance and more uniform gas velocity distribution in bionic flow channels, various bionic cooling channels of foil bearings are proposed and the structural parameters are optimized. The effects of cooling channel type, cooling channel width, span ratio, cooling gas supply mode, and rotational speed on the thermal and loading performance of foil bearings are investigated. The studies demonstrate that the spider net round cooling channel exhibits higher heat transfer performance and improved uniformity of temperature. Compared to the cooling gas supply from inner edge, the cooling gas supply from the outer edge proves to be more effective. The maximum temperature of lubricant gas film can be greatly reduced with wider cooling channels and a smaller channel span at the outer edge. The maximum temperature of lubricant gas film and bearing load are reduced as the Reynolds number of cooling gas increases. There exists an optimal Reynolds number that can achieve the highest uniformity of temperature.

The hydrogen hydrostatic thrust bearing (HHTB) is a key component of hydrogen liquefaction that impacts turbo-expander characteristics. To analyze the feasibility of using the HHTB in this application, characteristics of HHTBs were calculated using a CFD model. To upgrade the performance of the HHTB, the impacts of bearing structure and operating parameters on static performance were investigated. Dynamic characteristics of the HHTB were studied using the dynamic grid method. It was found that the load capacity of the HHTB is less than that of helium-lubricated bearings but higher than that of air- and methane-lubricated bearings. The turbulent kinetic energy of hydrogen is higher than that of other gases. Load capacity can be enhanced through boosting supplied pressure, expanding the diameter of supply orifices, reducing gas film clearance, increasing the orifices quantity and setting a circumferential groove. A reduction in disturbance amplitude slightly increased the bearing’s dynamic stiffness. The dynamic stability of the HHTB was improved by a small film clearance in response to disturbance.

Spiral-grooved thrust bearing (SGTB) is one of the important kinds of supporting component in high-speed rotating devices. The high shearing rate of SGTB can produce a large amount of viscous dissipative heat, which causes a temperature rise. Dynamic pressure effect induces pressure variation in the herringbone SGTB (HSGTB). When liquid hydrogen (LH₂) is used as a lubricant, cavitation caused by lower pressure and higher temperature can result in lubrication failure. Especially, the cavitation of LH₂ is more prone to occur because of its small temperature difference between the triple point and critical point, and the smaller supercooling degree. The influence of thermal properties on the phase transition process of LH₂ is more significant. In this paper, the thermal and mechanical performance of three different structures of LH₂ lubricated SGTB is compared by considering viscous dissipative heat. Herringbone SGTB is proposed for better performance and feasibility of its application in LH₂ lubrication. The static performances of HSGTB such as load capacity, friction torque, cavitation rate, average temperature, and heat flux have been evaluated numerically by introducing the cryogenic cavitation model. The orthogonal sampling method and range analysis are used to optimize the HSGTB structure. Compared with the original HSGTB, cavitation rate and temperature rise are significantly suppressed in the optimized HSGTB. In addition, the load capacity is also improved effectively at high rotational speed, which is expected to be applied to high-speed centrifugal pumps.

In aerostatic thrust bearings (ATBs), a high-pressure gas film with a certain bearing capacity and stiffness is formed by passing high-pressure gas between the moving surface and the static surface. Aerostatic bearings have outstanding advantages in the following aspects: high precision, high speed, and long service life, etc. They are widely used in many fields, such as high-speed air spindles, precision machine tools, air-bearing guideways, turbine machinery, and high-speed drills. With the pursuit of higher efficiency and high-precision machining machinery, there is an increasing demand for high-performance ATBs. Much effort has been spent on the study of ATBs, such as improvements in load capacity and stiffness, and the enhancement of stability. Some significant progress has been achieved. In this paper, the research developments of ATBs are summarized from several aspects, such as theoretical models and experimental methods, static performance, dynamic performance, and applications. In addition, insights on the breakthrough and development trends of ATBs are put forward. It is hoped that this paper can provide some guidance for the design and application of ATBs.