...Luis San Andrés; Thomas Abraham Chirathadam; Tae-Ho Kim Engineered metal mesh foil bearings (MMFBs) are a promising low cost bearing technology for oil-free microturbomachinery. In a MMFB, a ring shaped metal mesh provides a soft elastic support to a smooth arcuate foil wrapped around a rotating...

...Sébastien Le Lez; Mihaï Arghir; Jean Frêne One of the main interests of gas foil bearings lies in their superior rotordynamic characteristics compared with conventional bearings. A numerical investigation on the stability limit and on the unbalanced response of foil bearings is presented...

...Tae Ho Kim; Luis San Andrés Widespread usage of gas foil bearings (FBs) into microturbomachinery to midsize gas turbine engines requires accurate performance predictions anchored to reliable test data. This paper presents a simple yet accurate model predicting the static and dynamic force...

...Sébastien Le Lez; Mihaï Arghir; Jean Frene A gas bearing of bump foil type comprises an underlying structure made of one or several strips of corrugated sheet metal covered by a top foil surface. The fluid film pressure needs to be coupled with the behavior of the structure for obtaining the whole...

...Deborah A. Osborne; Luis San Andre´s Gas film bearings offer unique advantages enabling successful deployment of high-speed microturbomachinery (<0.4 MW). Current applications encompass micropower generators, air cycle machines and turbo expanders. Mechanically complex gas foil bearings...

..., such as Fe-20Cr-25Ni and Fe-20Cr-20Ni. Long-term testing of these materials at 650–700 °C shows excellent corrosion resistance to a simulated exhaust gas environment. Testing at 800 °C has been used to further differentiate the performance of the various materials. The depletion of Cr from foils...

...Dario Rubio; Luis San Andrés Gas foil bearings (FB) satisfy many of the requirements noted for novel oil-free turbomachinery. However, FB design remains largely empirical, in spite of successful commercial applications. The mechanical structural characteristics of foil bearings, namely stiffness...