Search Results (6)

In the application of an aerostatic motorized spindle, given the different requirements for the optimal gas film thickness of gas bearing under various processing conditions, this paper puts forward the tapered aerostatic bearing as the radial support element of the spindle and realizes the adjustability of gas film gap in a particular range through the axial fine-tuning mechanism. A 5-DOF dynamic model of the bearing rotor system is established, and the transient Reynolds equation is solved using the finite difference method to obtain the pressure distribution characteristics of the gas film. Based on this, the spindle’s translation and angular displacement responses are determined by solving the spindle’s motion equation. The simulation results show that the tilting motion of the spindle significantly affects the pressure distribution of the gas film, and the nonlinear gas film force will lead to nonlinear severe vibration of the spindle. The study also reveals that reducing the gas film thickness under low-speed and heavy-load conditions effectively decreases the amplitude and offset of the spindle. However, increasing the gas film thickness enhances the system’s speed and stability under high-speed and light-load conditions. Full article

Downhole turbine generators (DHTG) installed within drill-string are susceptible to internal and external excitation during the drilling process, causing significant dynamic loads on bearings, and thereby reducing the bearing’s service life. In this study, a finite element model of an unbalanced rotor-bearing system (RBS) of DHTG with multi-frequency excitations, based on the Lagrangian motion differential equation, is established. The responses of the RBS under different drill-string excitations in terms of time-domain response, whirl orbit, and spectrum are analyzed. For a constant rotor speed, lateral harmonic translational and lateral oscillation both transform the whirl orbit to quasi-periodic, while axial rotation only changes the response amplitude. Changing the duration of pulse excitation leads to different response forms. Then, the dynamic characteristics of the RBS supported by a squeeze film damper (SFD) are investigated. The results indicate that SFD effectively reduces the displacement response amplitude and bearing force near the critical speed. As the axial rotation angular velocity of the drill-string increases, the first critical speed and displacement response decrease, while the variation of lateral oscillation frequency and amplitude has limited impact on them. The established model provides a means for analyzing the dynamic characteristics of DHTG’s RBS under drill-string excitations during the design stage. Full article

Small-Scale Turbines (SSTs) are among the most important energy-extraction-enabling technologies in domestic power production systems. However, owing to centrifugal forces, the high rotating speed of SSTs causes excessive strains in the aerofoil portions of the turbine blades. In this paper, a structural performance analysis is provided by combining Finite Element Methods (FEM) with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The primary objective was to examine the mechanical stresses of a Small-Scale Radial Turbine (SSRT) constructed utilizing 3D printing technology and a novel plastic material, RGD 525, to construct a SSRT model experimentally. After introducing a suitable turbine aerodynamics model, the turbine assembly and related loads were translated to a structural model. Subsequently, a structural analysis was conducted under various loading situations to determine the influence of different rotational speed values and blade shapes on the stress distribution and displacement. Maximum von Mises and maximum main stresses are significantly affected by both the rotor rotational speed and the working fluid input temperature, according to the findings of this research. The maximum permitted deformation, on the other hand, was more influenced by rotational speed, while the maximum allowable fatigue life was more influenced by rotating speed and fluid intake temperature. Also, the region of the tip shroud in the rotor had greater deflection values of 21% of the blade tip width. Full article

For a magnetically suspended control moment gyro (MSCMG), the high-speed rotor is actively suspended by magnetic bearings of 5-DOF, but the nonlinearity of the magnetic suspension force is one of the main reasons for the poor accuracy of radial translation control of the magnetically suspended rotor (MSR). To solve this problem, here, the characteristics of the magnetic suspension force are analyzed, and the nonlinear dynamic model of MSR is established. A sliding mode control (SMC) based on a neural network is presented, and the radial basis function (RBF) neural network is adopted to approximate the nonlinear displacement stiffness and the current displacement stiffness to weaken the chattering in SMC to improve the control accuracy of the MSR. The stability of the neural network SMC for the MSR is analyzed based on Lyapunov functions, and the rules of updating network weights are presented based on adaptive algorithms. Compared with these existing classic control methods, the simulation and experimental tests performed on a single-gimbal MSCMG with an angular momentum of 200 N.m.s indicated that this neural network SMC for MSR’s radial translation can not only make its suspension more stable but can also make its position precision higher. Full article

Self-bearing machines do not contain physical bearings but magnetic bearings. Both rotor rotary and spatial positions displacement are required in these types of machines to control the rotor position while it is levitating. Self-bearing machines often use external sensors for x (horizontal) and y (vertical) spatial position measurement, which will result in additional cost, volume, complexity, and number of parts susceptible to failure. To overcome these issues, this paper proposes a $xy$-position estimation self-sensing technique based on both main- and cross-inductance variation. The proposed method estimates x and y position based on inductive saliency between two sets of three-phase coils. The proposed idea is applied on a combined winding self-bearing machine which does not require additional suspension force winding. No additional search coil placement for $xy$-position estimation is required. Therefore, the proposed algorithm can result in a compact size self-bearing machine that does not require external sensors for $xy$-position measurement and suspension force winding. Full article

Harmonic force and torque, which are caused by rotor imbalance and sensor runout, are the dominant disturbances in active magnetic bearing (AMB) systems. To eliminate the harmonic force and torque, a novel control method based on repetitive control and notch filters is proposed. Firstly, the dynamics of a four radial degrees of freedom AMB system is described, and the AMB model can be described in terms of the translational and rotational motions, respectively. Next, a closed-loop generalized notch filter is utilized to identify the synchronous displacement resulting from the rotor imbalance, and a feed-forward compensation of the synchronous force and torque related to the AMB displacement stiffness is formulated by using the identified synchronous displacement. Then, a plug-in repetitive controller is designed to track the synchronous feed-forward compensation adaptively and to suppress the harmonic vibrations due to the sensor runout. Finally, the proposed control method is verified by simulations and experiments. The control algorithm is insensitive to the parameter variations of the power amplifiers and can precisely suppress the harmonic force and torque. Its practicality stems from its low computational load. Full article