Innovative Bearing Concepts For High Speed Rotating Machines

Under Phase I, MiTi will first review existing Navy data and materials to more thoroughly define the potential Air Cycle Machine foil bearing failure modes including different potential contaminants and overload conditions. This data will be used to prepare preliminary designs of MiTi’s novel sealed, high capacity thrust and journal foil bearings as direct replacements for the existing bearings. In the Phase I option, a selected MiTi test rig will be modified as needed to conduct baseline contamination verification testing. The Phase I option will use the existing ACM foil bearing design for testing under both dry particle debris and “wet oil/sea water condensate/fuel” contamination conditions in order to simulate the failure mode(s) being experienced and establish a baseline for Phase II. Under Phase II, the preliminary MiTi sealed bearing designs will be updated and fabricated; a dynamic simulator and the actual ACM will be tested with baseline and newly designed bearings under contamination and vibration overload environments to demonstrate improvements achieved with the novel MiTi bearings. Phase III will lead to complete qualification and certification of the developed bearing concepts so that they may be transitioned to F-18 and other high speed machinery applications.