Compliant Foil Hybrid Bearings for Gas Turbine Engines

MiTi proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a high performance oil-free bearings suitable for application to commercial, general aviation and military gas turbine engines. These novel journal bearings are based on compliant foil bearings and magnetic bearings. Key elements of the bearing system are the increase in compliant foil bearings to sizes approaching 150 mm and the ability to operate at temperatures to 1500 F. Such a compliant foil bearing will have the necessary capability to carry rotor loads in the event of a magnetic bearing overload or failure even for large gas turbine engines. To ensure maximum utilization of space the bearing system will be nested to produce a bearing system that is robust, simple in design, and is lightweight. Under this effort, MiTi will use state-of-the-art foil and magnetic bearing analysis tools and resources to establish key bearing design parameters for the high temperature applications. Due to the criticality of materials for this environment RPI will identify the needed material system for Phase II and beyond. Finally, preliminary conceptual designs of the tribological and bearing qualification test rigs needed for Phase II will be completed. ~990099 ~