Evaluation of Foii Bearing

Performance and Noniinear

Daejong
University of Texas at Arlington,
Arlington, TX 76019
e-mail: daejongkim@uta.edu
An Sung Lee
e-mail: aslee@kimm.re.kr
Bum Seog Choi
e-mail: bschoi@kimm.re.kr
Korea institute oí Machinery and Materials,
104 Shinsungro, Yuseonggu,
for cylindrical and conical modes. Stiffness of the diaphragm coupling was evaluated
Daejon City 305-600, Korea
AFB clearance is suggested from frequency domain modal analyses and nonlinear tran-
Rotordynamics of 120 kW
Oii-Free Gas Turbine Generator
This paper presents a design approach of airfoil bearings (AFBs)fora 120 kWe gas tur-
bine generator, which is a single spool configuration with gas generator turbine and al-
ternator rotor connected by a diaphragm coupling. A total of four radial AFBs support
the two rotors, and one set of double acting thrust foil bearing is located inside the gas
generator turbine. The rotor configuration results in eight degree of freedom (DOF)
rotordynamic motions, which are two cylindrical modes and two conical modes from the
two rotors. Stiffness of bump foils of candidate AFB was estimated from measured struc-
tural stiffness of the bearing, and implemented to the computational model for linear stiff-
ness and damping coefficients of the bearing and frequency-domain modal impedances
using finite element analysis and implemented to nonlinear rotordynamic analyses of the
entire engine. Analyses show the conical mode of the turbine rotor is the main source of
instability of the entire engine when AFB clearance is not selected properly. Optimum
sient analyses. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4025898]

Keywords: foil bearing, rotordynamics, turbo alternator

Introduction tricity of the rotor. Therefore, rotordynamics stability or threshold

Air foil bearings (AFBs) are air-lubricated self-acting hydrody-
namic bearings, and its application to stationary power generation
gas turbines (below 500 kWe) and small turbo compressors and
blowers can be found in [1-3]. Valco and DellaCorte [4] proposed
a so-called "four step" process to integrate AFB to a new applica-
tion. The four steps are: (1) assess the rotordynamic feasibility of
the application (2) component testing of candidate bearing designs
(3) rotordynamic system testing with a simulated rotor and the
selected bearing design from step (2) and (4) full-scale demonstra-
tion after successful rotordynamic simulation. Common tasks in
step (1) are rough sizing of AFB from proposed rotor layout, esti-
mation of AFB stiffness and damping coefficients, critical speed
analysis, rotordynamics stability analysis using the AFB coeffi-
cients. Common tests of candidate AFB in step (2) are load
capacity, start/stop reliability, selection of appropriate coatings on
the shaft and bearing. Fxemplary activities following thefirsttwo
steps for development of oil-free propulsion system can be found
in the work by Howard et al. [5].
However, the first three steps proposed in [4] require additional
considerations: (1) izing of AFB should not be based on load
capacity estimated by the rule-of thumb proposed by [6], because
maximum load capacity of AFB is measured using a well-
designed ideal rig under static load under maximum allowable
cooling. Maximum allowable load to the bearing should be chosen
based on required number of start/stop cycles: (2) linear stiffness
and damping coefficients are not an accurate performance mea-
sure of stability of a rotor supported by AFBs because actual rotor
vibration is typically a combination of multiple vibration frequencies
with different magnitudes and AFB coefficients depend on the
excitation-frequency as well as operating speed and static eccen-
' Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Structures and Dynamics Committee of ASME for publication
in the JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING FOR GAS TURBINES AND POWER. Manuscript received
August 29, 2013; final manuscript received August 30, 2013; published online
November 27, 2013. Editor: David Wisler.
speed cannot be estimated from linear stiffness and damping coef-
ficients even if they predict critical speeds well [7-9] (3) compo-
nent level testing in step (2) should include detailed thermal
characterization of candidate AFB, which includes assuring ther-
mal stability with certain cooling air flow rate, measurement of
required pressure drop versus cooling air flow rate, andfindingop-
timum cooling air flow rate that allows thermal stability and
desired thermal gradients of AFB components.
Many theoretical models have been developed for component
level static and dynamic performance of AFB [7,10-12] including
recent nonlinear models [13-16]. To extend AFB to larger sys-
tems than current applications, hybrid foil bearing combining tra-
ditional AFB with hydrostatic injection was introduced [17-21],
and their enhanced performances in load capacity at low speeds
and superior cooling capacity were demonstrated [19,21]. A com-
ponent level thermohydrodynamic behavior of AFBs was also
investigated by many researchers [22-29].
Thrust foil bearings are also the subject of active research.
Heshmet et al. [30] presented a theoretical model of thrust AFBs
with combined finite difference and finite element method. Ior-
danoff [31] presents the design method of thrust AFBs based on
the optimum film thickness profile. Bruckner [32] performed ther-
mohydrodynamic (THD) analysis of thrust AFBs by solving a
simplified energy equation and Reynolds equation. Lee and Kim
[33] presented a comprehensive 3D THD model of double acting
thrust foil bearing considering heat transfer to bump foils and
cooling air. Lee and Kim [34] extended the concept of hybrid foil
bearing presented in [20] to the thrust foil bearing and presented
computational model to predict static and dynamic performance
under hybrid operating mode. All those works mentioned above
serve as tools for the first two steps of foil bearing integration into
a new system.
Scope of the Paper. Figure 1 shows the 120 kWe gas turbine
configuration with rated speed of 45,800 rpm under development
at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Material. It is a typical

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power MARCH2014, Vol. 136 / 032504-1
Copyright © 2014 by ASiVIE
 where a's are flexibility factors from the diaphragm. Figure 3(a)
is the finite element analysis (FEA) result by applying unit lateral
force (IN) on one end while the other end is fixed. Likewise, Fig.
3(i>) is the FEA result for concentrated unit moment (IN m) at
one end. By evaluating the flange slope and displacement of the
point connected to the diaphragm, a's were found as

\ 17.03 10.93
(2)
9.59 8.98

which hl turn yields the coupling stiffness matrix as

Fig. 1 120 kW MGT configuration, rated speed = 45,800 rpm, '617 N/mm -22,489 N/rad\
maximum over speed = 50,400 rpm (3)
-19,962 N 1382Nm/rad j
two-shaft system with a diaphragm coupling between the gas gen-
erator turbine and generator. Four radial bearings and one set of Radial Foi! Bearing. A candidate AFB (Fig. 4) is made of a
double acting foil thrust bearings support the engine. The nominal single circular top foil with underlying bump foils made of nickel
diameter and length of the radial AFBs are 70 and 60 mm, super-alloy formed into four strips. AFB structural stiffness was
respectively.
The purpose of this paper is to present the design approach of
radial AFB (1) to complement the activities in steps (1) and (2)
and (2) to aid preparation of full scale rotordynamics test and
engine test in steps (3) and (4) proposed in [4]. Actual full scale
rotordynamics/engine tests described in steps (3) and (4) require a
substantial amount of time and resources, and thus an accurate
analysis tool for the entire engine system is highly needed.
Characteristics of diaphragm coupling and candidate AFB cho-
sen for the engine were evaluated, and their characteristics were
implemented to the rotordynamics analysis of the entire engine.
Highly nonlinear behavior of foil bearings is highlighted through
eight degrees of freedom (DOF) nonlinear rotordynamics analysis
of the entire engine.

Component Levei Evaluation.

Diaphragm Coupling. Figure 2 is a photo of the diaphragm
coupling. The length and diameter of the slender shaft connecting
two diaphragms are 61 mm and 14mm, respectively. From beam
theory, lateral deflection (?/), and rotation angle ((f>) of the flange
under lateral force (F) and moment (M) deflnes the coupling stiff-
ness matrix.
mm
-1 (a)

(1)

•«.DO

(b)

Fig. 2 Photo of diaphragm coupiing: (a) under iaterai ioad; (b) Fig. 3 FEA results of diaphragm coupiing: (a) with top foil
under moment removed; (b) complete assembly

032504-2 / Vol. 136, MARCH 2014 Transactions of the ASME


Fig. 4 Photo of radial foil bearing
measured using a load-deflection test apparatus (Fig. 5), wherein a
dummy shaft with a diameter of 70.6 mm was fixed and the AFB
was pushed/pulled against it to record load versus structural
deflection (Fig. 6). Measured AFB structural stiffness is 18.3 MN/m
Fig. 5 Photo of load-deflection test rig for radial foii bearing
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power
SOD rooo isoo aoo 2soo
Fig. 6 Load-deflection curve of radial foil bearing: (a) 4 DOF
for generator shaft; (b) 4 DOF for turbine shaft
from the slope beyond 500 N. From the measured AFB structural
stiffness, stiffness of one bump for the entire length was calcu-
lated as 1.347 MN/m assuming that the force-deflection relation
of each bump is linear and the reaction force component of each
bump along the loading direction is equal to the total force
applied.
Initially, cold assembly radial clearance was chosen as 325 ßm
for the candidate AFB. However, actual operating clearance is
smaller due to thermal and centrifugal expansion of the shaft;
from engine layout and preliminary thermal analysis of solid
housings and rotor, the temperature gradients between the bearing
sleeve and shaft were predicted as around 300 °C in the turbine
hot section and 75 °C in the turbine cold section and generator,
resulting in reduction of radial clearance. The clearance is further
reduced by centrifugal expansion of the journal shaft (stainless
steel). The rotor temperatures at AFB locations were predicted as
500 °C at the turbine hot section, 250 °C at the turbine cold sec-
tion, and 200 °C at the generator at full load.
Table 1 summarizes clearance reduction due to thermal and me-
chanical sources and also viscosity of AFB air film assuming the
film temperature follows the rotor temperature.
Preliminary critical speed analysis using commercial rotordy-
namics software predicts the fourth rigid body mode of below
10,000 rpm and the first bending mode, (fifth critical speed) of
~97 krpm. Therefore, the engine is modeled as two rigid rotors
connected by a flexible coupling with stiffness in Eq. (3). Table 2
summarizes the load to the AFBs, where subscripts 1 and 2 corre-
spond to their locations in Fig. 7.
Stiffness and damping coefficients of the AFBs were predicted
using the linear perturbation method [7] under loading condition
in Table 2 using the operating clearance and viscosity in Table 1,
and bump stiffness measured from the load-deflection test. Due to
relatively large operating clearance, the candidate AFB has strong
stiffness anisotropy and small cross coupling stiffness as presented
in Table 3.
Table 1 Operating clearance and viscosity at 50,400 rpm under
full load
Generator Turbine cold section Turbine hot section
ACrhcnnal -29/im -29íim -116/im
'^Cccntrifugal - 3 1 ¡im —31 /im - 3 1 /im
^Operational 265 íim 265/im 178/im
Viscosity 25.5|iPas 27.4/(Pas 35.6/iPa s
"Assuming thermal expansion coefficients of 11 /im/(m °C).
MARCH2014, Vol. 136 / 032504-3
 Table 2 Load distribution to radial foii bearings where F\ ¡J and Fy y are forces induced by imbalance in the tur-
bine rotor, and F j g and Fy B represent the dynamic bearing reac-
Generator Turbine tion forces from the two AFBs. Fj_coupiing.^Lcoupiing are reaction
forces due to the motion of generator shaft through the coupling
l^Total (N) 84.2 175.0 stiffness shown in Eq. (3). Fx_Aeroi^y_Aero ^ ^ aerodynamic cross
^M, 1 V/2 (N) 42.1/42.1 101.6/73.4
coupling forces from the compressor and turbine impellers and
D IL (mm) 70/60 70/60
W,I(DL) (Pa) 10,024 24,184 they are expressed as
WADL) (Pa) 10,024 17,483
_ _ ACompressor/yr _ Kly N
~ Y'-Aero \' t •^Compressors
I /^Turbine / v7" p1''7 \\
Methodology of Rotordynamics Analysis. Transient rotordy- + *^Aero ('' ~ i -^Turbine j I
(5)
namics analyses were followed after the damped eigenvalue anal-
^''ero V^ + V ¿•Compressor j
ysis. The first 4 DOF motions are translations {X^ J^) of the
turbine shaft's mass center of gravity, and rotations of the rotor
shaft {^ ji/i^) are described in Fig. 7. In addition, similar 4 DOF
motion coordinates are assigned to the generator rotor. The two
rigid rotor motions are coupled through the stiffness of the flexible where k^'^'^^^°'' "' '"^ is aerodynamic cross coupling stiffness
coupling. from the impellers.
The equations of the radial motions of the turbine rotor are The equations of conical motions are

Pxjl + ^X.U + ^X-\em + ^XXoupling i-Coupling

(4) (6)
' ' y R ~^ ''Y U ~^ ''Y Aern + ^ y'-Couplir
Tniinlinp

where /f and ¡J, are the translational and polar moment of inertia
of the turbine rotor, respectively. M'^.^^^J are moments due to
imbalance forces, and M'^^^_j^^^^^ are aerodynamic moment created
by the aerodynamic cross coupling force from impellers,

M2" _ _ 7 , Compressor ^ y r , iTy \

^_Aero ^Compressor ' '^Aero V^ ' Y ^Compressors

Z 7 Turbine / v7^ i ,¡,^^'7 \

Turbine • '^Aero l ^ + V' -^Turbine]
(7)
„r - _ 7^ . .Compressor/yr i:Ty x
•''•'i/i-Aero ~ ^Compressor "Aero v' •= ^Compressors

7 I Turbine ( ^T P^ 7 \
~ ^Turbine ' "Aero v' ~ *= -^Turbine;

^f/iA-Coupling ^ ^ moments due to the relative motion of the gener-

ator rotor due to shear force and moment transmitted through the
coupling.
The equations of the 4 DOF motions of the generator rotor are
similar to those of turbine rotor except for the absence of aerody-
namic forces from the impellers.

(a)
(8)
Y^ = f yjj -I- F y y + f ^Coupling

+ /^ Ml, + Mff Coupling

(9)

Coupling forces at the turbine and generator shafts are found as

y.Coupling
T
(10)
.ï-Coupling

)lmg

Ij — 0.3486kglll" where AX, AK are relative displacements of the turbine rotor with
_ _ -, respect to the generator rotor at both ends of the coupling,
nij = 1 7 . 8 6 k g
(b) AX =
(11)
Fig. 7 Coordinate system and variables for 3D rotordynamics
simuiation

032504-4 / Vol. 136, MARCH 2014 Transactions of the ASME

 Table 3 Synchronous coefficients of foii bearings. Coordinate system foiiows Fig. 7.

(l)Foil bearings at generator

RPM kxx (N/m) kyx (N/m) kxy (N/m) kyy (N/m) dxx (N s/m) dyx (N s/m) dxy (N s/m) dyy (N s/m)
15,000 2.01 X 10* 3.28 X 10' 5.83 X 10' 2.39 x lO' 487.4 74.9 -7.7 23.5
20,000 1.76x10* 3.07 X 10' 5.67x10' 2.48x10' 348.2 61.5 -4.7 20.6
25,000 1.59 X 10* 2.89 X 10' 5.55 X 10' 2.57 x lO' 271.1 54.2 -2.2 19.4
30,000 1.45 X 10* 2.73 X 10' 5.42 X 10' 2.65 x lO' 221.3 48.7 -0.6 18.6
35,000 1.34 X 10* 2.58 X 10' 5.25 X 10' 2.67 x lO' 183.5 42.2 -0.3 17.5
40,000 1.26 X 10* 2.46 X 10' 5.15x10' 2.74x10' 158.5 39.0 0.4 17.2
45,000 1.19 X 10* 2.37 X 10' 5.10x10' 2.83x10' 140.0 36.8 1.0 17.1
50,000 1.13 X 10* 2.26 X 10' 4.97 X 10' 2.84 x 10' 122.9 32.8 0.6 16.4
(2) Foil bearing at turbine cold section

rpm Kxx Kyx Kxy Kyy dxx dyx dxy dyy

15,000 4.30 X 10* 5.58 X 10' 8.21 X 10' 4.22 X 10' 958.3 105.8 -71.9 34.2
20,000 4.02 X 10* 5.68 X 10' 8.26 X 10' 4.35 X 10' 668.5 76.9 -52.5 28.0
25,000 3.81 X 10* 5.82 X 10' 8.45 X 10' 4.61 X 10' 514.7 66.1 -43.7 23.8
30,000 3.62 X 10* 5.91 X 10' 8.59 X 10' 4.84 X 10' 413.9 58.3 -37.2 21.3
35,000 3.45 X 10* 5.84 X 10' 8.54 X 10' 4.96 X 10' 341.1 49.7 -33.3 19.5
40,000 3.30 X 10* 5.96 X 10' 8.69 X 10' 5.22 X 10' 291.0 47.0 -29.0 18.5
45,000 3.17 X 10* 5.91 X 10' 8.67 X 10' 5.37 X 10' 251.5 42.1 -26.8
50,000 3.06 X 10* 5.93 X 10' 8.73 X 10' 5.62 X 10' 222.8 40.3 -24.9 17.4
(3) Foil bearing at turbine hot section

rpm Kxx kyx kxy Kyy dxx dyx dxy dyy

15,000 3.70 X 10* 6.64 X 10' 9.67 X 10' 5.94 X 10' 880.1 136.6 -81.7 61.2
20,000 3.38 X 10* 6.49 X 10' 9.64 X 10' 6.27 X 10' 624.1 109.9 -64.6 52.1
25,000 3.13 X 10* 6.36 X 10' 9.61 X 10' 6.60 X 10' 480.8 95.4 -53.5 47.7
30,000 2.94 X 10* 6.16 X 10' 9.47 X 10' 6.86 X 10' 387.7 83.6 -46.6 45.1
35,000 2.79 X 10* 6.01 X 10' 9.35 X 10' 7.16 X 10' 324.0 75.5 -42.0 43.9
40,000 2.67 X 10* 5.86 X 10' 9.25 X 10' 7.49 X 10' 278.3 69.7 -38.5 43.8
45,000 2.57 X 10* 5.74 X 10' 9.17 X lO' 7.87 X 10' 244.2 65.3 -36.0 44.4
50,000 2.50 X 10* 5.58 X 10' 9.04 X 10' 8.25 X 10' 216.9 61.0 -35.0 45.4

Total are total slopes of both rotors,

/î(o,Z')=C-h {X + \¡/Z) cos d ^Z)úr\e + o(B,Z') (14)

', ¿Total = í ' ' + (12) where C is the operating clearance and Z is the axial position of
the bearing. ô{6,Z') is a local deflection of the bearing surface (Z'
is a local axial coordinate in the bearing), which follows the inde-
Coupling moments to the turbine and generator rotors are found pendent elastic foundation model combined with the 1D analytical
as beam model and edge correction as suggested in [18].
Table 4 shows axial coordinates of bearings, impellers, imbal-
^iXoupling '• ku ("^Total " 0.5<^ ) - f yXoupling^Coupling ance, and coupling, amount of imbalance (G2.5 from API stand-
ard) and phase angles, and aerodynamic cross coupling stiffness
from the impellers.

^.Coupling - k^ (¿Total "

Results and Discussion
=+ - 0.5^' Figure 8 shows the damped eigenvalue analysis (using commer-
(13) cial rotordynamics software) in a form of log-decrements of all

The dynamic bearing reaction force from specific AFB is calcu- Table 4 Axial coordinates of i<ey components and imbaiance
and aerodynamic cross-coupiing stiffness
lated differently for linear and nonlinear models. In the linear
model, the bearing reaction is calculated by multiplying displace- Turbine shaft Generator shaft
ment and velocity of the rotor at the center of the corresponding
AFB by linear coefficients. (m«),/0p, 5.4 g mm/0 deg {mu)J4>pi 2.7 g mm/0 deg
However, the nonlinear model uses the bearing pressure inte- {mu)J<j>j,2 5.4 g mm/180
deg (mu)J(j>j,2 2.7 g mm/180 deg
grated over the bearing surfaces directly, and the pressure is calcu- I Compressor
''Aero 20N/mm
lated by solving transient Reynolds equation (including squeeze
/^Turbine
term) and bump dynamics simultaneously with the equations of "Aero 20N/mm
rotor motions. The reaction moments from the bearings are found ^{mii)l ^Compressor — 141 mm -267 mm
by vector product of the bearing position and bearing reactions. Zfmu¡2=ZTurb¡ne 142 mm 121 mm
ZAFB; -60 m ZAFB; -172 mm
In the nonlinear model, the AFB fikn thickness is a function of ZAFB2 83 mm 84 mm
ZAFB2
displacement of the rotor center of gravity and gyroscopic motion ^coupling —267 mm 121mm
^coupling
of the rotor, such as

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power i\/IARCH2014, Vol. 136 / 032504-5
 1000

0.1 0.15 0.25

Time (second)

1000

10000 20000 30000 40000 50000

Natural Frequency, cpm f-1000 Gly G2y G2x V
O
(gieciO (ocean bhie) Glx
I -2000 (Mue)
Fig. 8 Log-decrements of four damped natural frequencies S
-3000
0.05 D.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
the natural frequencies when the linear stiffness and damping Time (second)
coefficients in Table 3 were used. All the modes are stable due to
large stiffness anisotropy of the AFB. Fig. 10 Transient response from noniinear rotordynamics
Figure 9 presents simulated transient vibrations of the turbine analysis: (a) cyiindricai mode; (b) conical mode
(T) and generator (G) rotors at AFB locations 1 and 2, using the
linear coefficients in Table 3. The entire rotor is stable consistent
with the log-decrement behavior (mostly positive). However,
simulated transient response from the full nonlinear analysis is
unstable as shown in Fig. 10. (16)
The candidate AFB with relatively large clearance has favor-
able stability characteristics of the cylindrical mode (Fig. 11 (a))
due to strong stiffness anisotropy. However, modal impedance of
the conical mode is not as favorable as the cylindrical mode.
Assuming, for simplicity, (1) nonexistence of the diaphragm cou- Figure 1 \{b) shows modal damping, i.e., imaginary part of Eq.
pling, (2) identical two bearings (with average stiffness) sharing (15), for the forward conical mode. Negative modal damping is
the same load, and (3) equal distance from mass center of gravity
to each bearing, following expressions define impedances for for-
ward and backward conical motions of the rigid rotor.
600000 -

Z/_ConicaI f 7.,7, A 500000 -

»Turbine — — — Generator
N/m
400000 -
Zfc_Conical — "
300000 -
(15)
200000
Impedances contain both stiffness and damping of the bearings,
gyroscopic effect, excitation frequency (Wex), and bearing span
100000
(¿g), such as

I? 100 (a)
T2y . T2x- ..•7 25000 -
•Turbine - - — Generator

Tly .•••'' 20000 -

Nm/rad
1 1.5 2 2.5 15000
Time (second)

10000 -

5000 •

.-•C' 0
0.5 1.5 2.5

1 1.5 2 2.5 -5000

Time (second) (b)
Fig. 9 Transient response using linear synchronous Fig. 11 Modal impedance curves as a function of excitation
coefficients frequency at 50,400 rpm

032504-6 / Vol. 136, MARCH 2014 Transactions of the ASME

 10000
l i l i IIlkil)iLvvvWVV¥VWi Tlx ••••A

200 W T2x
\
Nm/rad

2001
w
0 Iflpf'ï'"^^^

1
^ T2y
r

0.5 1 1.5 2.5

Time (second)

1000

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Fig. 15 Trend of modai impedance curves for conical mode
Time (second) with different radial clearances

Fig. 12 Transient response from nonlinear rotordynamics

anaiysis with ciearance increased by 50/im

•Turbine — — - Generator

Nm/rad

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Time (second)

T 1

200 Illiii G2x

100 K B Glx ...-^ Gly

•••••A -

o|P G 2 y ••••'''
-

0.5
<
1 1.5 2 2.5
Fig. 13 iVIodai impedance curves for conicai mode with radial
clearances increased by 50/im Titne (second)

Fig. 16 Stabie transient response, C = 215 /im

..-7 7
Tly T2y'
(green) (ocean blue)

175 185 195 205 215 225 235 245 255 265 275
C(nm)

Fig. 14 Ratio of synchronous modai damping to maximum

negative subsynchronous damping for conicai mode of turbine
rotor with different AFB clearances

observed in the excitation frequency ratio (coex/w) below 0.348,

and synchronous modal damping is lower in the turbine bearings. 1 1.5 2
Titne (second)
The ratio of the synchronous damping to maximum negative sub-
synchronous damping^ (denoted y^^ in Fig. 11) is 2.25. Generator
bearings also have negative damping at low frequencies, but they Fig. 17 Unstabie transient response, C = 205 /tm
are compensated by large synchronous components, resulting in
y^ji = 4.314 allowing the generator rotor to be stable under imbal-
ance excitation. Further increase of all AFB clearances by 50 fim increases the
stiffness anisotropy, resulting in very stable rotordynamics behav-
ior as shown in Fig. 12. Figure 13 presents modal damping curves
At excitation frequency ratio of 0.05. of bearings with increased clearance, where a portion of the

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power MARCH2014, Vol. 136 / 032504-7
negative damping in the turbine bearing is reduced, resulting in
higher yg¡ of 2.87.
The different operating clearance among AFBs was based on
an assumption that identical AFBs are used for all the four loca-
tions with the same shaft diameter at cold assembly condition.
However, it is possible to control the clearance at each AFB inde-
pendently by choosing different bearing sleeves or grinding the
shaft diameter differently. Therefore, modal analysis and nonlin-
ear transient analyses were repeated with decreasing the clearan-
ces (but all identical clearance for all four AFBs) from 265 to
185 /.im. Figure 14 presents the trend of stability and y¡a with oper-
ating clearance from modal damping curves of the conical mode
of the turbine rotor presented in Fig. 15. Figures 16 and 17 present
transient responses of stable and unstable cases for an operating
clearance of 215 and 205 ^im, respectively. All the transient analy-
ses above were performed for 4000 revolutions until the steady
state response is not affected by an initial transient motion.
Conclusions
This paper presented the design approach of AFBs for 120 kWe
gas turbine generators. The candidate AFB in this paper has strong
stiffness anisotropy when combined with appropriate assembly
clearance. Experimentally-measured AFB bump stiffness and
FEA-based stiffness characteristics of diaphragm coupling were
implemented to the computational model for AFB dynamic char-
acteristics and nonlinear rotordynamics of the entire engine.
For baseline AFB clearance, linear analyses using synchronous
bearing coefficients predict a very stable rotor, while nonlinear tran-
sient analyses predict the rotor being very unstable. Frequency-
domain analyses reveal that negative modal damping of conical
mode of the turbine rotor at low excitation frequencies is the source
of the rotor instability for the baseline AFB clearances. However,
analyses also show that negative modal damping at low excitation
frequencies does not necessarily result in instability; the ratio (75.5) of
synchronous modal damping to maximum negative subsynchronous
modal damping is more of an important performance measure of
rotordynamic stability, and yjj should be as large as possible. Both
linear and nonlinear analyses with identical clearance for all four
AFBs reveal a clear tendency of rotor stability with y„. As clearance
is decreased, y^^ is also decreased. With the current rotor configura-
tion, jss > 2.2 is required for stability, and current candidate AFB
requires radial clearance of at least 215 ^m.
Acknowledgment
The aerodynamic design of impellers and overall rotor layout
design were carried out by Jinsol Turbomachinery, LLC. The
authors also appreciate Dr. Siwoo Lee at Jinsol for providing the
candidate the AFB.
References
[1] "Descriptions of Jinsol Turbomachinery, Ltd., Product Line of Turbo Blowers.
Turbo Compressors, and Generators" available at http://www.jinsolturbo.co.kr/.,
access date November 2012.
[2] "Capstone Microturbine Solutions Product Index" available at http://www.capstone
turbine.com/prod.sol/products/, access date November 2012.
[3] "Descriptions of Neuros Co. Ltd, Product Line of Turbo Blowers, Turbo Com-
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