Feasibility Study of an Oil-Free

Turbocharger Supported on Gas

Yong-Bok Lee
Principal Research Scientist
Center for Urban Energy System,
Korea Institute of Science and Technology,
39-1 Hawolgok-dong, Songbuk-gu,
Seoul, Korea, 136-791
Suk Bum Kwon
Research Assistant
Tae Ho Kim1
Assistant Professor
School of Mechanical Systems Engineering,
Kookmin University,
Jeongneung 3-dong, Seongbuk-gu,
Seoul, Korea 136-702
Kyuho Sim2
Department of Mechanical System
Design Engineering,
Seoul National University of Science
and Technology,
232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu 139-743,
Seoul, Korea, 139-743
Foil Bearings Via On-Road Tests
of a Two-Liter Class Diesel
Vehicle
This paper presents the feasibility study of an oil-free turbocharger (TC) supported on
gas foil bearings (GFBs) via on-road tests of a 2-liter class diesel vehicle. The oil-free
TC is constructed using a hollow rotor with a radial turbine at one end and a compressor
impeller at the other end, a center housing with journal and thrust GFBs, and turbine
and compressor casings. The oil-free TC reuses parts of a commercial variable geometry
turbocharger, except for the rotor-bearing system. In a test rig driven by a diesel vehicle
engine (EG), the rotordynamic performance of the oil-free TC is evaluated up to the rotor
speed of 130 krpm, which is measured at the compressor end. The journal GFBs are
modified to enhance the rotordynamic performance by inserting three metal shims
between the bump-strip layers and bearing housing. The rotordynamic performance is
also measured during on-road tests by replacing the original TC of the test diesel vehicle
with the constructed oil-free TC. The journal GFBs have a relatively large bearing
clearance and no metal shims to generate subsynchronous motions at low TC and EG
speeds. During normal vehicle driving, the TC rotor motions show steady rotordynamic
operations. The oil-free TC rotates at 25 krpm  50 krpm while the vehicle runs at
20 km/h  30 km/h on the road. Subsynchronous rotor motions initiate with a frequency
of 100 Hz at the TC speed of 37 krpm. As expected, the TC rotor motion also shows
multiple EG-induced harmonics. Upon external shocks, produced by driving the vehicle
on road-bumps, the subsynchronous motions are only excited when the rotor rotates
above the initiation speed of subsynchronous motion. The excitation is nondestructive
because the vehicle suspension absorbs most of the external shock. Incidentally, the
external shocks appear to have no influence on the synchronous motion and engine-
induced harmonics of the TC rotor. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4007883]

Keywords: gas foil bearing, oil-free turbocharger, mechanical preload, rotordynamic

performance

1 Introduction TCs driven by pressurized shop air. The tests showed that two
subsynchronous whirl motions occur at approximately 1/2 ring
Passenger vehicle turbochargers (TCs) improve the fuel efficiency
speed and 1/2 ring speed plus 1/2 journal speed. Furthermore, an
and power output of internal combustion engines by recycling heat
increase in the lubricant feed pressure was found to delay the
energy from the exhaust gas and supplying an additional charge of
onset speed of instability, while the lubricant feed temperature
air into the engine. Current TCs that are popular in the marketplace
showed minimal effect on the onset speed of instability. San
employ oil-lubricated hydrodynamic bearings, particularly floating
Andres et al. [2] presented rotordynamic performance measure-
ring bearings (FRBs), due to their enhanced damping capability and
ments and predictions of an automotive semi-FRB TC for the
inherent rotor cooling by oil-circulation. However, it is desirable to
lubricant inlet pressure of 4 bar at 150  C, driven by a hot gas for
replace oil bearings with oil-free bearings, such as gas foil bearings
speeds up to 240 krpm. That study showed that accurate predic-
(GFBs), for system simplicity and bearing loss reduction.
tions of rotordynamic performance of TCs require a nonlinear
Recent research on passenger vehicle TCs have aimed to
rotordynamics model coupled to a complete FRB lubrication
enhance computational model predictions of the rotordynamic
model. San Andres et al. [3] further enhanced their computational
performance of FRB TCs and their experimental validation [1–4].
prediction model with a thermohydrodynamic model, predicting
The FRB TCs experience large subsynchronous rotordynamic
ring speeds, inner and outer film temperatures, clearance changes
instability over a wide range of operating speeds. The
due to thermal growth, operating eccentricities of ring and shaft,
subsynchronous whirl motions reach a limit cycle due to the high
and linearized force coefficients. The nonlinear rotordynamics
damping via the dual oil films of FRBs. Holt et al. [1] measured
model integrating the thermohydrodynamic FRB lubrication
and predicted the rotordynamic responses of an automotive FRB
model was validated by TC tests driven by pressurized air. The
predictions showed good correlations when implementing the
1
Conducted work as a senior research scientist at Korea Institute of Science and measured ring speeds into the computational model. Recently,
Technology. San Andres et al. [4] presented rotordynamic performance meas-
2
Corresponding author. urements of an engine-mounted TC unit operating at a top speed
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) of ASME for
publication in the JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER. Manuscript
of 160 krpm (max. engine speed 3600 rpm). The measured TC
received September 24, 2012; final manuscript received September 24 2012; casing accelerations showed multiple harmonic frequencies of the
published online April 23, 2013. Editor: Dilip R. Ballal. main engine speed, while the second and fourth harmonics were

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power MAY 2013, Vol. 135 / 052701-1
C 2013 by ASME
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 found to be dominant. That study used the measured TC casing namic performance of the test oil-free TC is measured during on-
accelerations as a base excitation for the nonlinear rotordynamic road tests of the test vehicle, particularly focusing on the rotordy-
model of TC rotor lateral motions. namic performance upon external shocks.
Oil-lubricated TCs still suffer from the inherent deficits of
oil-lubrication and the large bearing power losses. Hence, many
researchers have sought the implementation of GFBs into 2 Test GFB Configuration
automotive TCs [5–8]. Howard [5] presented a feasibility study of
oil-free TCs supported on GFBs for diesel trucks, based upon Figure 1 shows a bump-type test GFB with a single top foil and
predictions of rotordynamic stability, load capacity, and stress a single bump strip layer (1st generation). The top and bump foils
considerations. That study offered GFBs as a plausible replace- are made from Inconel 750 with a thickness of 0.12 mm. The shaft
ment for oil-lubricated bearings in TCs. Heshmat et al. [6] devel- is made from Iconel 718 with a diameter of 24 mm. The TC rotor
oped a 150 HP oil-free TC supported on GFBs and tested for the is supported on two journal GFBs: one longer GFB at the turbine
rotor speed of 95 krpm with turbine inlet temperatures up to side and one shorter GFB at the compressor side. The bearing
650  C on a TC gas test stand. The study reported stable bearing width is 25.3 mm for the longer GFB and 16.8 mm for the shorter
temperatures, low rotor vibrations, good shock tolerance, as well GFB. The top and bump foils are spot-welded at the top of the
as 100,000 start/stop cycles at 650  C with a proprietary solid film bearing housing inner surface. The bump pitch and height are
lubricant coating. This study also implied a possible application 2.7 mm and 0.4 mm, respectively. Three metal shims with the
of compliant air foil bearings to gas turbines. Lee et al. [7,8] thickness of 30 lm and a width of 10 mm are inserted between
developed an oil-free GFB TC for passenger vehicles and tested it the bump-strip layers and the bearing housing, evenly located in
on a test bench driven by exhaust gas from a 2-liter diesel vehicle the circumference. The first shim is located at 60 deg from the cir-
engine at a maximum TC speed of 136 krpm (max. engine speed cumferential origin. One shim foil with a thickness of 50 lm and
3140 rpm). The test TC reused turbine and compressor impellers an arc length of 360 deg is used for bearing clearance control. The
from a commercial waste gate TC. The bypass valve of the test thrust GFBs have the inner and outer radius of 16.7 mm and
TC for wasting excessive exhaust gas was fixed to be wide open 27.1 mm, respectively. The thrust GFBs employ four top foil pads
in the experiments. The performance measurements of the test TC with an inclined angle of 40 deg, while the bump foil strip uses
on GFBs showed significant reductions of the bearing power loss
and turbo-lag phenomenon at high TC speeds. In these studies, the
rotordynamic performance of the oil-free TCs described above
has been tested primarily on test benches driven by pressurized
shop air, hot gas, or a diesel vehicle engine under laboratory
conditions.
Gas foil bearings (GFBs) are a type of hydrodynamic air bear-
ing with a foil structure (a top foil and a bump foil) between a
journal and a bearing housing. Gas foil bearings have been
widespread in various high speed and high temperature rotating
machinery due to enhanced rotordynamic performance at high
speeds and the capability of accommodating thermal deformations
at high temperatures [9]. Gas foil bearings have many other
advantages, such as simple design, light weight, and low power
loss. Particularly, Kim and San Andres [10] suggested a mechani-
cal preload to GFBs by inserting three metal shims between the
bump-strip layers and the bearing housing, evenly located in the
circumference. The three metal shims formed a multiple lobe
profile; thus inducing a hydrodynamic wedge in the bearing clear-
ance. They reported that the shimmed GFBs led to an increase
in system natural frequency and delayed the onset speed of
subsynchronous whirl motions based on measurements during the
rotor speed-up and speed-down to/from 50 krpm and predictions
employing linearized bearing force coefficients.
Dimofte [11] proposed a bearing design for compressible lubri-
cant, the wave journal bearing, to improve steady-state and
dynamic performance of the hydrodynamic journal bearing. A
three-wave bearing features three waves on the inner bearing
surface, resembling the three-lobe bearing. This study showed that
the wave geometry yielded higher load capacity and stability char-
acteristics than the plain journal bearing over a broad range of
speeds. Note that the shimmed GFB in Ref. [10] has a similar bear-
ing configuration to the wave bearing. The inner surface
configuration of the three-wave bearing with the top foil and the
elastic foundation of the bump foil behind the top foil broadens the
minimum film thickness range and enhances the damping charac-
teristics using the structural dry-friction in the foil structure.
This paper presents a feasibility study of an oil-free TC sup-
ported on GFBs via on-road tests of a 2-liter class diesel vehicle.
First, the test TC performance is assessed on a test bench driven
by an identical diesel engine to the test vehicle. A series of speed-
up and speed-down tests for the original and shimmed GFBs are
conducted to compare and enhance their rotordynamic performan- Fig. 1 Schematic of bump-type test GFBs, journal and thrust.
ces. Second, the oil-free TC is installed into the test diesel vehicle Three 30 lm metal shims were used for preload: (a) journal GFB
by replacing the original TC supported on FRBs. The rotordy- and (b) thrust GFB.

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 Table 1 Material properties and geometries of test journal and
thrust GFBs. Top and bump foil material: Inconel 750.

Journal bearing Bearing width (turbine side) 25.3 mm

Bearing width (compressor side) 16.8 mm
Bearing housing radius 12.7 mm
Top foil thickness 0.12 mm
Bump foil thickness 0.12 mm
Bump pitch 2.7 mm
Bump half length 1.2 mm
Bump height 0.4 mm
Shim foil thickness for clearance 0.05 mm
Shim foil arc length for clearance 360 deg
Shim foil thickness for preload 0.03 mm
Shim foil width for preload 10 mm
Thrust bearing Bearing inner radius 16.7 mm
Bearing outer radius 27.1 mm
Number of top foil 4 —
Top foil angle (/) 90 deg
Top foil thickness 0.12 mm
Bump foil thickness 0.12 mm
Bump pitch 2.7 mm
Bump half length 1.2 mm
Bump foil height 0.4 mm
Arc angle of inclined plane (h1) 40 deg
Height of inclined plane (H1) 0.4 mm

the bump geometry for the journal GFBs. Table 1 shows the mate-
rials and geometries of the test journal and thrust GFBs.

3 Test Oil-Free TC Configuration

Figure 2 shows a picture of the test oil-free TC: (a) oil-free TC
rotor, (b) journal and thrust GFBs, and (c) oil-free TC assembly
with impeller casings removed. With the exception of the
rotor-bearing system, the test oil-free TC is constructed using
compressor and turbine impellers of a commercial VGT (variable
geometry TC) for the test vehicle. The TC rotor has a diameter of
24 mm with turbine and compressor impellers at each end and a
thrust collar in the middle placed closer to the compressor for
mass balance. Steel nuts assemble both impellers to the rotor. The
long-nose nut at the compressor end is surface-polished for meas-
urements of lateral rotor motions. The total mass and length of the
rotor are 0.326 kg and 116 mm, respectively. The shaft made from
Inconel 718 is coated with a proprietary solid lubricant, CORONA
910 [12], for reduction of wear and friction at high temperature
and start/stop. The GFB housing is affixed to the TC housing by a
pin stopper. A control pin, connected to a hydraulic actuator,
maneuvers the nozzle area. Detailed geometry and material prop-
erties of the test TC rotor are presented in Table 2.

4 GFB Clearance Estimation

Figure 3 shows the GFB displacement versus static load
measurement along its test setup. In general, GFB radial clearan-
ces are unknown due to an interference contact of the GFB to a
shaft at rest, as well as its parasitic manufacturing inaccuracy
[10]. The mechanical preloads present more difficulties in bearing
clearance estimation due to their periodic circumferential varia- Fig. 2 Picture of test oil-free TC: (a) oil-free TC rotor, (b) jour-
tion. In this study, nominal clearances of the shimmed GFBs are nal and thrust GFBs, and (c) oil-free TC assembly with impeller
estimated geometrically from a measured clearance of the original casing removed
GFBs. As presented in Fig. 3(a), the original GFB at the turbine
side, having no shims for preload and clearance, is held by a bear-
ing holder. A rigid shaft has an identical diameter to the test rotor. Table 2 Geometry and material properties of oil-free TC rotor.
A strain gauge type load cell (0.051 V/N) measuring the static Shaft material: Inconel 718.
load is connected to the GFB housing holder through an adapter,
TC rotor Total length 116 mm
which converts the helical motion of the screw rod to the pure Total mass 0.326 kg
axial motion with a minimized friction torque. An optical gap sen- Compressor mass 0.0317 kg
sor (2.2 mV/lm) measures the horizontal displacement of the Turbine mass 0.0729 kg
bearing holder. The measured GFB displacement versus static Shaft diameter 24 mm
load shows a maximum static load and displacement of 70 N

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Fig. 3 GFB displacement versus static load recorded during
consecutive loading–unloading tests. Estimated nominal radial
clearance C 5 100 lm: (a) static load performance measurement
test rig and (b) GFB displacement versus static load.
and  170 um, respectively. These measurements show a typical
nonlinearity of the GFB: null stiffness around the origin and hard-
ening toward the displacement limits. Consequently, the radial
GFB clearance is estimated to be 100 lm from the length of the
null stiffness region. Note that local discontinuous displacements
are observed when changing the loading direction due to the
adapter assembly inaccuracy.
5 Rotordynamic Analysis
The rotordynamic analyses predict natural frequencies of the
TC rotor-bearing system with linearized force coefficients of
the journal GFBs [10,13]. Figure 4 illustrates a finite element
Fig. 4 Finite-element model of oil-free TC rotor on journal
GFBs
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rotordynamic model of the oil-free TC rotor on journal
GFBs, developed using a commercial rotordynamic software,
XLTRC2TM. The TC rotor is modeled with sixty-four elements
for the shaft, two disk elements for turbine and compressor impel-
lers, and two bearing elements for the journal GFBs. Added mass
elements include the weight of the tie nuts. The core shaft for as-
sembly of the impellers is press-fitted into the rotor journal.
Figure 5 presents the synchronous dynamic force coefficients,
stiffness and damping, of the original and shimmed GFBs at the
turbine side with the nominal clearance of 50 lm, assuming a
50 lm shim foil is inserted over the circumference. Analysis of
the GFBs is based on the numerical solution of the Reynolds
equation for compressor flows, which is presented in many
research papers [13–15]. Solid and dashed lines indicate the
original and shimmed GFBs, respectively. From the predicted
force coefficients, the shimmed GFB is shown to have larger
direct stiffness and damping than the original GFB, clearly
revealing the effects of the mechanical preload and reduced av-
erage GFB clearance. Furthermore, the shimmed GFBs have an
increased ratio of the direct stiffness to the cross-coupled stiff-
ness, appearing to enhance rotordynamic performance. Note that
an increase in direct stiffnesses often delays the onset speed of
large amplitude subsynchronous motions [10]. Appendix A
presents the dynamic force coefficients for the short GFBs at the
compressor side.
Consequently, as presented in Fig. 6, the shimmed GFBs
increased the system natural frequencies for both the conical and
cylindrical rigid modes, as compared to the original GFBs.
Approximate critical speeds of the original and shimmed GFBs
are less than 10 krpm by crossing the 1X line. Note that the
bending critical speed is relatively constant at around 240 krpm,
which is not displayed in the figure for a closer view of the rigid
modes.
Fig. 5 Predicted synchronous dynamic force coefficients for
original and shimmed GFBs of long GFBs at the turbine side:
(a) stiffness coefficients and (b) damping coefficients
Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 6 Predicted natural frequency versus rotor speed for orig-
inal and shimmed GFBs. CON and CYL indicates conical and
cylindrical rigid modes.
Fig. 7 Test rig for oil-free TC driven by diesel vehicle engine
(2.0 liter, four cylinders, combustion-ignited, intercooled, and
turbocharged): (a) oil-free TC driven by a diesel vehicle engine
and (b) magnified view for sensors
6 Lab Test Results
Figure 7 is a photograph of the test rig for shaft lateral motion
measurements of the oil-free TC when driven by exhaust gas from
a diesel vehicle engine. The engine has four cylinders with a total
capacity of 2.2 liters and a VGT supported on FRBs. The engine
speed is measured using a tachometer from the crank shaft. The
engine exhaust manifold is connected to the TC turbine inlet via a
0.3 m metal extension pipe. The oil-free TC is assembled to the
turbine housing, which is affixed on the test bed. A pair of optical
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Fig. 8 Measurements of engine crank shaft speed and vibra-
tion frequency of engine-induced harmonics in TC rotor
motion. EG indicates engine.
displacement sensors (2.2 mV/um) is placed orthogonally at the
compressor end for the measurement of lateral rotor motions,
using sensor holders welded to the compressor housing. A hydrau-
lic actuator maneuvers the turbine nozzle area for the exhaust
flow speed control.
Engine vibrations due to the engine combustion cycle are trans-
mitted to the TC housing and; thus, the TC rotor via the exhaust
pipe. Therefore, the rotor motions include multiple harmonics of
the engine speed. Figure 8 presents the measurements of the
engine crank shaft speed and the vibration frequency of the
engine-induced harmonics in the TC rotor motion. The crank shaft
speed measurement identifies the order of the lowest engine-
induced harmonic motion. The engine speed increased from
800 rpm at engine idle to 1200 rpm and then stopped. Half the
measured frequency of the lowest harmonics is exactly identical
to the engine speed, showing an identical tendency to the engine
speed variation. Consequently, the lowest engine-induced har-
monic in the rotor motion is identified as the second order of the
engine speed.
Figure 9 shows the measured waterfall response of the TC rotor
lateral motions at the compressor end in the vertical direction for
the original and shimmed journal GFBs. The journal GFBs, both
original and shimmed, have nominal clearance of 50 lm. The
thrust GFBs have four top foil pads with the inclined angle of
40 deg. The rotor speeds for the original and shimmed GFBs
increase to 66 krpm and 120 krpm, respectively, by manual
control of an inbuilt acceleration lever. The second-order engine-
induced harmonics for the original and shimmed GFBs reaches
50 Hz and 122 Hz, respectively. The measurements for the origi-
nal GFBs show a clear subsynchronous motion, locked at
240 Hz with 20 lm. On the other hand, the subsynchronous
motion for the shimmed GFBs shows increasing frequencies up to
440 Hz at the top speed, and with a very small amplitude less
than 5 lm. The whirl frequency ratio (WFR, a ratio of the
subsynchronous whirl frequency, associated with the rotor-GFB
system natural frequencies, to the rotor speed) is 0.22 for both the
original and shimmed GFBs. However, the experiment for the
shimmed GFBs failed at the top speed of 120 krpm.
Figure 10 shows the picture of the failed TC rotor and GFBs
from the experiment in Fig. 9(b). The top foil surface of the jour-
nal GFBs was in relatively good standing with small rubbings.
However, all the top foil pads of the thrust GFB on the compressor
side showed severe thermal deformations with partial material
burn-off. During the bearing failure, the thrust GFB lost the
hydrodynamic air film due to a high axial load from the turbine;
thus experiencing direct sliding contacts with the thrust collar
with the given axial load. The corresponding surface of the thrust
collar showed the coated surface ground. The results imply that
the thrust GFBs failed to support the excessive thrust load from
the turbine. Note that the oil-free TC has no thrust force balance
MAY 2013, Vol. 135 / 052701-5
 Fig. 9 Measured lateral motions of TC rotor in the vertical
direction at compressor end with four-pad thrust GFBs: (a) cir-
cular journal GFBs with C 5 50 lm and (b) shimmed journal
GFBs with C 5 50 lm
Fig. 10 Picture of failed TC rotor and GFBs from the experi-
ment in Fig. 9(b)
mechanism using hydrodynamic seals behind the turbine and
compressor. Incidentally, the test TC has no artificial secondary
flow path for cooling of the TC rotor/bearing system.
Figure 11 presents the measured TC rotor motions in the verti-
cal and axial directions on the compressor end with the shimmed
journal GFBs (C ¼ 50 lm) and five-pad thrust GFBs, which
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Fig. 11 Measured TC rotor motions in vertical and axial direc-
tions at compressor end with shimmed journal GFBs
(C 5 50 lm) and five-pad thrust GFBs: (a) waterfall of lateral
motion (vertical direction), (b) waterfall of axial motion, (c) axial
position, and (d) picture of five-pad thrust GFBs
only has a difference in the top foil pad number from Fig. 9(b).
The lateral rotor motion showed a fairly stable operation up to a
rotor speed of 123 krpm without bearing failure, and negligible
subsynchronous motions. The synchronous axial motion reached
30 lm. The 2X axial motion is also relatively large, while the 2X
lateral motion is negligible. Particularly, Fig. 11(c) shows the
Transactions of the ASME
 Table 3 Individual and total bearing loads for four and five pad
thrust GFBs against inclined angle from 20 deg to 50 deg

4 pads (90 deg) 5 pads (72 deg)

Inclined angle (deg) Individual Total Individual Total

20 4.63 18.52 3.81 19.05

30 5.94 23.76 4.66 23.3
35 6.344 25.376 4.81 24.05
40 6.6 26.4 4.82 24.1
45 6.71 26.84 4.66 23.3
50 6.7 26.8 4.36 21.8

Fig. 12 Calculated total bearing loads for four and five pad
thrust GFBs against inclined angle from 20 deg to 50 deg. Total
bearing load is summation of each pad bearing load. Minimum
film thickness on flat plane is 5 lm.
axial displacement of the rotor against time. The TC rotor balan-
ces its axial position during the rapid speed-up until 35 sec, then
moves slightly to the turbine until 115 sec, and finally rapidly
approaches the compressor at higher speeds. The result shows that
the TC rotor experiences a change of the axial load direction as
rotor speed increases, and strong axial loads from the turbine at
higher speeds. Figure 11(d) presents a picture of five-pad thrust
GFBs, whose top foil surfaces are relatively clean with small
rubbings near the inner radius.
The thrust GFBs with four and five pads are analyzed for bear-
ing loads while varying the inclined angle from 20 deg to 50 deg.
The minimum film thickness on the flat plane is set to 5 lm. The
total axial load is the product of each pressure load and pad
number. The thrust GFB analysis is based on the numerical solu-
tion of the Reynolds equation for compressor flows in Ref. [15].
Figure 12 shows the calculated total bearing loads for four and
five pad thrust GFBs against the inclined angle from 20 deg to
50 deg. The results show that the thrust GFB load maximizes
around 45 deg and 35 deg for four and five top foil pads with an
arc length of 90 deg and 72 deg, respectively. In other words, the
maximum thrust GFB load occurs when the inclined angle
is  50% of the pad arc length. Contrary to the experimental
results in Figs. 9 and 11, the four pad thrust GFB showed an 11%
higher maximum GFB load than the five pad thrust GFB. Table 3
summarizes individual and total bearing loads for four and five
pad thrust GFBs against inclined angles from 20 deg to 50 deg. In
addition, the thrust GFB analyses on the six pad thrust GFB
showed that the maximum load occurred at an inclined angle of
30 deg, which is not presented for brevity. Note that no coating
was applied on the top foil surface. Appendix B presents the pres-
sure distribution on one pad of the four and five pad thrust GFBs
with inclined plane angles of 45 deg and 35 deg, respectively.
The authors believe that there are two reasons for the discrep-
ancy between the experiments and predictions in the thrust GFBs.
First, the present model taken from Ref. [15] uses a simple elastic
foundation model for the top foil and bump layer, without taking
into account the top foil bending and membrane effects. In reality,
for a given load, the smaller angular length of the five top foils
may have higher plate bending and membrane stiffnesses which
produce larger minimum film thickness at the top foil edges; thus
preventing the bearing failure, as pointed out in Ref. [16]. Second,
the increase in the manufacturing and assembling inaccuracies for
the four pad thrust GFB with the larger angular length may also
cause the decrease in the load capacity. As is broadly accepted,
the top and bump foils cannot be manufactured via precision
machining. Further, the flexible top and bump foil should be
assembled into a bearing casing (back plate) accompanying their
large plate deformations, which means that a certain level of the
manufacturing inaccuracy is inevitable in the foil bearings [13].
Therefore, the top foil with the smaller angular length may have
better forming accuracy of the inclined and flat planes.
7 On-Road Test Results
The rotordynamic performance of the test oil-free TC is measured
via on-road tests of a diesel passenger vehicle. The test GFB TC
replaces the original GFB TC. The journal GFBs use the original
GFB configuration with 100 lm bearing clearance without any
shim for preload or clearance control. A large bearing clearance
is employed to observe the rotordynamic behavior of the
subsynchronous motion during various vehicle driving conditions,
particularly external strong shocks upon crossing road-bumps. The
thrust GFBs have four pads. The test vehicle runs on a general motor
road with five road-bumps at speeds of 20 km/h  30 km/h for 4 min.
The road bumps have a width of 1.2 m and a height of 0.3 m. The
vehicle engine speed ranges from 800 rpm at idle to 1500 rpm, while
the test TC rotates at speeds from 22 krpm to 50 krpm.
Figure 13 shows a picture of the test oil-free TC installed into
the test diesel vehicle, viewed from the vehicle bottom. The
vehicle engine is behind the test TC. Four connection pipes con-
nect the test TC to the engine and vehicle exhaust in the same
manner for the original FRB TC. The inset is the exterior of the
test vehicle. Two optical gap sensors are affixed orthogonally to
the compressor housing using the sensor holders, identical to the
lab test condition. Additionally, a piezoelectric accelerometer is
placed on the compressor housing inlet in the vertical direction.
Figure 14 presents the overall waterfall response of the meas-
ured lateral motions of the test TC rotor in the vertical direction at
the compressor end from on-road vehicle tests. idle turbocharger
speed (ITS), onset speed of subsynchronous motion (OSS), and
subsynchronous motion (SUB), denote the TC speed at engine
idle, the onset speed of large amplitude subsynchronous motions
upon speed-up, and the large subsynchronous motions associated
with the rotor–bearing system natural frequencies, respectively.
Fig. 13 Picture of test oil-free TC installed into test diesel
vehicle, viewed from vehicle bottom. EG is behind TC.

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Fig. 14 Overall waterfall response of measured lateral motions
of test TC rotor in the vertical direction at compressor end from
on-road vehicle tests. “Amp” and “EG” denote amplitude and
engine.
The thick red arrows pointing to the left indicate the bump passing
time (a time when the passenger vehicle passes a road bump).
During the on-road vehicle test, several engine-induced harmonics
and SUB occur below 200 Hz, and the 1X motion lies between
400 Hz and 800 Hz. The ITS was reduced from 550 Hz to 480 Hz
after vehicle driving, implying a possible friction increase due to
the exhaust gas penetration into the GFBs.
Fig. 15 Picture of oil-free TC rotor and GFBs after on-road
vehicle test
052701-8 / Vol. 135, MAY 2013
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Figure 15 shows the picture of the test TC rotor and GFBs after
on-road vehicle tests. The turbine surface exposed to the exhaust
gas is hardly covered by the exhaust gas particles, while the com-
pressor is clean. The contamination by the exhaust gas is also sig-
nificant on the rotor surface and inside the journal and thrust
GFBs, particularly at the turbine side.
Figure 16 presents the measured TC rotor lateral motions and
TC housing acceleration of test oil-free TC from 120 sec to
176 sec, and is a closer view of Fig. 14: (a) the waterfall response
of TC rotor lateral motion, (b) the contour plot of TC rotor lateral
motion, and (cc) the contour plot of TC housing acceleration.
Figures 16(a) and 16(b) show that the 1X amplitude is maintained
at 80 lm, while the SUB spikes to the level of the 1X amplitude at
higher TC speeds above 700 Hz. In detail, the SUBs initiated at a
rotor speed of 620 Hz at the time of 123 sec and 155 sec, and
commonly locked at the frequency of 100 Hz as the rotor speed
increases. Importantly, the SUBs are slightly excited only at
168 sec upon vehicle road-bump passing, where the rotor speed
lies above the OSS. However, the SUB excitation was relatively
mild without harm to the TC operation. Interestingly, the road-
bump passing at the times of 126 sec and 139 sec with the rotor
Fig. 16 Measured TC rotor lateral motions and TC housing
acceleration of test oil-free TC in the vertical direction at com-
pressor end from on-road tests, magnified from 120 sec to
176 sec: (a) waterfall response of TC rotor lateral motion, (b)
contour plot of TC rotor lateral motion, and (c) contour plot of
TC housing acceleration
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 speed below the OSS did not excite the SUB. The road-bump
passing showed no influence on the 1X motion and the
EG-induced harmonics. Besides, the rotor motion shows clear
engine-induced subharmonics, particularly the second, fourth, and
sixth order. On the other hand, the measured acceleration of the
TC housing showed clear paths of engine-induced harmonics, to-
gether with the housing body resonance at  280 Hz identified
from preliminary impact tests in the test bench. No noticeable
excitation of the TC housing is found upon the road-bump pass-
ing, implying that the vehicle suspension absorbed most of the
external road-bump shocks. The major TC housing accelerations
are the second and fourth order of EG-induced harmonics, identi-
cal to the reports in Refs. [4] and [17].

8 Conclusion
This paper presents a feasibility study of an oil-free TC sup-
ported on GFBs via on-road tests of a 2-liter class diesel vehicle.
The test TC performance was measured on a test bench driven by
a diesel engine identical to that in the test vehicle.
The rotor speeds for the original and shimmed GFBs increase
to 66 krpm and 120 krpm, respectively. The measurements for the
original GFBs show a clear subsynchronous motion, locked at
240 Hz with 20 lm, while the subsynchronous motion for the
shimmed GFBs shows increasing frequencies up to 440 Hz at the
top speed, and with a very small amplitude less than 5 lm. How-
ever, the experiment for the shimmed GFBs failed at the thrust
GFBs at the top speed of 120 krpm due to the excessive thrust
load from the turbine. Nevertheless, the lateral rotor motion for
five-pad thrust GFBs showed a fairly stable operation up to a rotor
speed of 123 krpm without bearing failure and with negligible
subsynchronous motions. However, the thrust GFBs analyses
showed that the four pad thrust GFB has an 11% higher load
capacity than the five pad thrust GFB. Fig. 17 Predicted synchronous dynamic force coefficients for
the circular and shimmed GFBs of the short GFBs at compres-
The rotordynamic performance of the test oil-free TC was
sor: (a) stiffness coefficients and (b) damping coefficients
measured via on-road tests of a diesel passenger vehicle. The
original FRB TC is replaced by the test GFB TC, which has the
original journal GFB with 100 lm bearing clearance and four pad
thrust GFBs. The driving tests on a general motor road with five
road bumps at speeds of 20 km/h  30 km/h for 4 min showed sta-
Appendix B
ble operations of the test GFB TC with mild subsynchronous Figure 18 presents the pressure distribution on one pad of four
motions. The subsynchronous motions initiated at a rotor speed of and five pad thrust GFBs with inclined plane angle of 45 deg and
620 Hz and locked at a frequency of 100 Hz. The large 35 deg, respectively. The peak pressures are almost identical,
subsynchronous motion was slightly excited upon vehicle road while the pressure span is longer for four pads. The sharp pressure
bump passing only when the rotor speed lies above the OSS. peak at the end of the inclined plane indicates the slope disconti-
However, the SUB excitation was nondestructive to the TC opera- nuity between the inclined and flat planes.
tion. In addition, the road bump passing showed no influence on
the 1X motion and the engine-induced harmonics. The measured
TC housing acceleration showed that the vehicle suspension was
found to absorb most of the external road-bump shocks.
The test results on the oil-free TC supported on GFBs showed
minimal influence of the external shocks on the TC operations,
even in the rotor–GFB system natural frequency range, which
ensures the applicability of the oil-free TC to passenger vehicles.
However, the importance of the thrust load balance between the
turbine and compressor should be noted for high speed operations.

Acknowledgement
This material is based upon work supported by Korea Institute
of Science and Technology (KIST) Research Projects: Develop-
ment of Efficient Eco-Friendly Energy Conversion Driver and
Energy Storage System Technologies and Development of Micro
Power Pack Technology for Long Distance Traveling E-Vehicles.

Appendix A
Figure 17 presents the dynamic force coefficients for the short Fig. 18 Pressure distribution on one pad of (a) four pad with
GFBs at the compressor side, which in general show similar inclined angle of 45 deg and (b) five pad with inclined angle of
trends to the long GFBs with deceased coefficient values. 35 deg

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