Research Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2019, Vol. 11(9) 1–11
Ó The Author(s) 2019
Rotor dynamic experimental DOI: 10.1177/1687814019875368
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
investigation of an ultra-high-speed
permanent magnet synchronous
motor supported on a three-pad
bidirectional gas foil bearing

Wenjie Cheng1 , Zhikai Deng1 , Ling Xiao1,

Bin Zhong2 and Wenbo Duan3

Abstract
With a 10-kW, 120,000-r/min, ultra-high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor taken as a prototype, experimen-
tal research is conducted on the rotor dynamic behaviours of a three-pad bidirectional gas foil bearing high-speed motor
rotor system. Load-carrying properties of the three-pad bidirectional gas foil bearing are analysed, and natural frequen-
cies of conical and parallel whirling modes of the elastically supported rotor are calculated based on an appropriate sim-
plification to the stiffness and damping coefficients of the gas foil bearings. The prototype passes through a 90,000-r/min
coast-down experiment. Experiments show that there are violent subsynchronous whirling motions that are evoked by
the gas foil bearing–rotor system itself. The cause of shaft orbit drift is analysed, and the corresponding solution is put
forward. The theoretical analysis and experimental results can offer a useful reference to the bearing–rotor system
design of ultra-high-speed permanent magnet motors and its subsequent dynamic analysis.

Keywords
Three-pad bidirectional gas foil bearing, ultra-high-speed motor, subsynchronous whirl, rigid body mode, shaft orbit drift

Date received: 19 June 2019; accepted: 20 August 2019

Handling Editor: Xiaodong Sun

Introduction assembly alignment requirements and superior start–

stop performance.5 GFBs have successfully been
The next generation of propellers and ground power applied in gas turbines under extreme conditions (DN
turbines will use oil-free bearings to meet weight and
performance requirements.1 To reduce volumes and
1
weights of machines, some new technologies, such as College of Science, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an,
China
bearingless permanent magnet machine2,3 and perma- 2
School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and
nent magnet biased active magnetic bearing,4 are Technology, Xi’an, China
applied to make the machines run at a high speed, but 3
School of Mechatronic Engineering, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal
they all require complicated control techniques. As University, Guangzhou, China
another type of oil-free bearing, gas foil bearings
Corresponding author:
(GFBs) have many advantages such as uncontrollabil- Wenjie Cheng, College of Science, Xi’an University of Science and
ity, high bearing capacity, low friction power, wide Technology, No. 58, Yanta Road, Xi’an 710054, China.
working temperature range, impact resistance, low Email: [email protected]

Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work
without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages
(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

value . 300 3 104 and 538°C working environment) critical speed. Because the stiffness and damping of
and have broad application prospects in fields such as GFBs are very sensitive to rotational speed, if the rotor is
fuel cells, distributed power stations, aircraft thrusters not designed properly, rigid mode natural frequencies
and gas processing.6 (cylindrical and conical mode frequencies) of the GFB–
Experiments show that subsynchronous whirling rotor system may approach the working frequency, thus
phenomena may occur in many GFB–rotor systems. causing resonance. Even if the natural frequency of the
The whirling frequency sometimes varies with the rota- shaft is lower than the working frequency, it is also possi-
tional speed, but it is often close to the natural fre- ble that the rotor will not be accelerated to its rated speed
quency of the bearing–rotor system.7 For gas bearings because of the small bearing damping at a high speed.20
without foils (having a stiff surface), owing to the high A feasible solution is to use low-stiffness foils, so that the
cross-stiffness, the subsynchronous whirling frequency natural frequency of the shaft can be arranged in a very
is nearly twice the rigid critical frequency of the low speed region where the GFBs have large damping.
bearing–rotor system.8 To alleviate or suppress the sub- At present, there are few reports on efforts to employ the
synchronous whirling phenomenon, elastic elements above method. In addition, a drift of shaft orbit some-
can be used to develop GFBs with large damping. times occurs in GFB–high-speed motor rotor systems,
Generally, there are two ways to increase the damping but the phenomenon has not been reasonably explained
of GFBs: by increasing Coulomb friction damping and in theory.
by increasing material internal damping. For the for- To test rotor dynamic performance of a three-pad
mer, a multilayer9 or multileaf10,11 foil structure can be bidirectional GFB–high-speed motor rotor system, we
used; for the latter, a metal mesh12 or a vibration dam- (1) designed three-pad bidirectional GFBs and inte-
per component13 can be introduced. Moreover, three- grated them into a 10-kW, 120,000-r/min, ultra-high-
pad GFBs6,14,15 and three-pad bidirectional GFBs16 speed PMSM prototype, (2) conducted speed-up and
have been developed to further increase the stability of coast-down experiments of the PMSM and measured
bearing–rotor systems. Research has shown that the the rigid mode natural frequencies and (3) give a quali-
stiffness and damping of GFBs are affected by the dis- tative explanation of the drift of the shaft orbit.
turbance frequency, namely, rotor rotational frequency
and rotor whirling frequency. At present, there is con-
siderable literature on the calculation of the stiffness GFB design
and damping coefficients of GFBs; however, few
experimental studies focus on GFB–high-speed perma- The test-compliant gas foil journal bearings (GFJBs)
nent magnet rotor systems, especially on three-pad were designed in the form of a three-pad structure as
bidirectional GFBs. Feng et al.17 presented rotor shown in Figures 1 and 2. The top and underlying foils
dynamic experimental results of a 100-kW, 43,000-r/min, are made of Inconel X-750 and 304 stainless steel band,
high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor respectively.
(PMSM) supported by five-pad multileaf GFBs. Choe The physical GFJB adopts a three-pad bidirectional
et al.18 presented the experimental results of a 225-kW, structure and the bearing sleeve has six slots, which is
60,000-r/min motor–generator double-span shafting sys- shown in Figure 2(a). Once the foil is inserted into the
tem supported by GFBs. For a 120-kW, 45,800-r/min bearing sleeve, radial freedom on both sides is con-
gas turbine generator supported by GFBs, bearing per- strained completely; however, a tiny displacement can
formances were estimated and dynamic behaviours of be allowed in the circumferential direction, as would be
the double-span rotor were analysed, and it was pointed the case for a freely supported structure. The bidirec-
out that conical whirling at the turbine end was the main tional structure makes the foils robust against being
cause of the instability.19 In the design of GFBs, to some rubbed off by the rotor during preload starting. In the
extent, the foil should be flexible. If the foil is too rigid, bearing mechanism, the three-pad bearing has three
the amount and rate of deformation of the foil will be convergent air gaps in the circumferential direction and
weakened, which will decrease material internal damping therefore it will produce three pressure peaks, which
and Coulomb friction damping, thereby deteriorating the make the pressure distribution of the gas film more uni-
stability of the bearing–rotor system. Therefore, it is nec- form than for a single-pad circular bearing. In addition,
essary to ensure that the foil can generate sufficient the three-pad structure itself will produce three pre-
deformation under actual service conditions to produce convergence gaps, and, even though the rotor is not
greater damping to absorb the vibration energy of the eccentric, it will produce a certain bearing capacity.
rotor. In engineering, a single-span rotor supported by For the underlying foil, a staggered array cantilever
GFBs is usually designed as rigid; that is, the working structure is adopted. The structure dissipates the energy
speed of the rotor is lower than the first-order bending by Coulomb friction between cantilever foils and the
Cheng et al. 3

(a) (b)

Figure 1. Sketch of the three-pad bidirectional GFB: (a) cross-section and (b) longitudinal section.

Figure 2. Gas foil bearings: (a) three-pad bidirectional gas foil bearing and (b) thrust foil bearing.

top foil as well as the bearing sleeve, and also by the Therefore, we ignore these contacts and only consider
vibration of the cantilever foils. the elasticity of the top foil, which will be equivalent to
For the gas foil thrust bearings (GFTBs) to be a freely supported structure. By fluid–solid coupling
tested, we employed six pads and used a spot-welded analysis, the dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients
structure, as shown in Figure 2(b). One end of the of the bearing will be obtained. The numerical results
backing bump foils and top foils is welded onto the for the stiffness and damping performance are shown
thrust bearing foundation, and the other end is free to in Figure 3(a) and (b), respectively. The results indicate
move. To maintain a smooth face of the thrust collar that both kxx and kyy increase slowly with the increase
and bearing, the welded spots were polished. A pair of of speed and then trend to a certain value; the numeri-
compliant GFTBs was designed to withstand the axial cal results for kxy and kyx show that they fluctuate with
forces caused by the impeller and fan. The geometries the increase of speed, but eventually approach 0 r/min.
of the GFBs are listed in Table 1. The dynamic damping coefficients decrease with the
If the contacts between cantilever foils and the top increase of speed and then converge to zero (as shown
foil as well as cantilever foils and the bearing sleeve are in Figure 3(b)). The above results are consistent with
considered, the calculation will become very complex. those from the literature.5
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Table 1. Geometry of the GFJB and GFTB.

GFJB item Value GFTB item Value

Number of pads 3 Number of pads 6

Bearing length, L 32 mm Inner diameter, Di 35 mm
Bearing diameter, D 32 mm Outer diameter, Do 60 mm
Top foil thickness, tT 0.11 mm Arc of the top foil, at 59°
Underlying foil thickness, tB 0.1 mm Arc of the bump foil, ab 59°
Arc of the pad, ap 116° Number of bumps 5
Number of rows of circumferential cantilevers 8 Bump height, hb 0.4 mm
Maximum number of axial cantilevers 15 Bump pitch, P 2.0 mm

GFJB: gas foil journal bearing; GFTB: gas foil thrust bearing.

150 400
dxx
dxy
kxx

Dynamic damping / (N.s/m)

300
Dynamic stiffness /(kN/m)

100 dyx
kxy
dyy
kyx 200
50 kyy

100

0
0

-50 -100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Speed/(kr/min) Speed/(kr/min)
(a) (b)

Figure 3. Dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of three-pad GFBs: (a) stiffness–speed curves and (b) damping–speed curves.

Rotor dynamic analysis

A hammer test was conducted to investigate the first-
order bending critical speed of the rotor. The test rig is
shown in Figure 4, and the results are illustrated in
Figure 5.
When the impeller and fan were not installed, the
first-order bending mode frequency of the rotor was
3140 Hz, which is 57% higher than the designed work-
ing frequency of 2000 Hz, as shown in Figure 5(a).
After installing the impeller and fan, the first-order
bending mode frequency of the rotor was 2661 Hz,
which is 33% higher than the working frequency and
Figure 4. Hammer test rig: (a) rotor without impeller and fan
has a greater safety margin, as shown in Figure 5(b).
and (b) rotor with impeller and fan.
The hammer experiment demonstrates that the rotor is
rigid and meets the design requirements.
A rotor dynamic analysis has been performed using Figure 7 shows a Campbell diagram for the bearing–
a finite element (FE) model, enabling the rigid mode rotor system obtained using the FE model. The first
(conical and parallel modes) frequency to be obtained. and second rigid critical speeds were predicted at
The geometrical parameters and material specifications 4500 r/min (conical mode) and 3500 r/min (cylindrical
of the rotor without impeller and fan are listed in Table mode), respectively. The first bending critical speed was
2. Figure 6 shows the rotor model divided into FEs and obtained at 177,720 r/min (2962 Hz), yet the rated speed
the position of the GFJBs. of the rotor was 120,000 r/min. Therefore, the rotor
Cheng et al. 5

Figure 5. Hammer test of the rotor: (a) test results of the rotor without impeller and fan and (b) test results of the rotor with
impeller and fan.

Table 2. Geometrical and material properties of the rotor.

Total length Total mass Diameter Span

200 mm 1.1 kg 30 mm 110 mm

Sleeve material PM material Polar moment of inertia Equatorial moment of inertia

2
Inconel 718 Sm2Co17 0.0016 kg m 0.0025 kg m2

PM: permanent magnet.

Thrust plate Journal bearing (A end) Journal bearing (B end)

Fan end

Impeller end

Figure 6. Finite element model of the rotor.

rated speed is far higher than the rigid critical speeds

and is lower than the bending critical speeds. This indi-
cates that the rotor is rigid.
Figure 7. Campbell chart of the FE model.

Test rig rotor, a set of GFTBs and two three-pad bidirectional

A test rig was built to demonstrate the running charac- GFJBs. In the rotor dynamic experiment, the impeller
teristics of the GFB–rotor system. Figure 8 shows the and fan were not assembled into the rotor. The motor
whole test rig, which is composed of a stator, a PM was driven by the frequency converter and cooled by a
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 8. Prototype and measurement system: (a) ultra-high-speed PMSM and (b) signal pickup assembly.

the whirling frequency was smaller than that of the

y View A working frequency, so the shaft orbit was still approxi-
x mately elliptical, as shown in Figure 10(b). When the
rotating speed reached 90,000 r/min, it had a 152 Hz
Displacement
sensor
whirling frequency whose amplitude was equivalent to
or even exceeded the amplitude of the working fre-
ω Impeller end quency, and the shaft orbit became petal like, as shown
x y in Figure 10(c) and (d). However, the rotor did not
become unstable at 90,000 r/min and could still run
continuously. This indicates that the rotor had entered
Bearing housing a nonlinear stable region. The above phenomenon in
rotor
which subsynchronous whirling frequencies are close to
twice the rotor rigid mode frequencies may be related
Bearing housing to the structural properties of the foil.7,21
z Fan end To investigate the source of the subsynchronous
View B whirling mentioned above, a coast-down test at
90,000 r/min was conducted; that is, the frequency con-
Figure 9. Sketch of the rotor dynamic experiment.
verter was turned off when the rotor was stable at
90,000 r/min, and then the rotor speed decelerated to
zero by overcoming air friction. In this process, the sta-
blower. The motor (rated at 10 kW and 120,000 r/min) tor experienced a back electromotive force (EMF), but,
was designed independently. because there was no current, the rotor was not sub-
The sketch of the rotor dynamic experimental rig is jected to the electromagnetic force. The waterfall chart
shown in Figure 9. Horizontal and vertical displace- shown in Figure 11 was thus obtained.
ments denoted by x and y at the two rotor ends (impel- It can be seen from Figure 11 that, when the rotor
ler end and fan end) were measured by four eddy frequency increased to 1500 Hz in 42.5 s, the amplitude
current displacement sensors. The displacement sensors of the subsynchronous whirling frequency component
had a range of 0–0.5 mm, are solution of 0.2& and a suddenly increased, becoming equivalent to the working
sampling frequency of 102.4 kHz. frequency. At 95.0 s, the frequency converter turned off
and the rotor started to coast down. It can be seen that
there was still a 140-Hz subsynchronous whirling fre-
Test results and discussion
quency component until 99.5 s, which indicates that the
A 90,000-r/min speed-up experiment was conducted. subsynchronous whirling is caused by the self-excitation
The results show that, when the speed increased to the of the bearing–rotor system. The peak–peak value of
range of 37,439–58,318 r/min, the subsynchronous the vertical displacement at the fan end in the coast-
whirling frequency became dominated by 128 Hz down section is displayed in Figure 12.
(about twice the cylindrical mode frequency), as shown Figure 12 shows the peak–peak value curve of the
in Figure 10(a). When the rotor speed increased to vertical displacement of the fan end in the process of
85,437 r/min, the whirling frequency was 160 Hz (about coasting down from 90,000 to 0 r/min, when the fre-
twice the conical mode frequency) and the amplitude of quency converter is turned off. It can be found that the
Cheng et al. 7

-3
x 10 0.252
2

0.25
X: 828
Y: 0.001715
1.5
0.248

Amplitude/mm

y/mm
1 0.246

0.244
0.5 X: 128 2488Hz
Y: 0.0003117
X: 1656
0.242
Y: 9.737e-05

0 0.24
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0.274 0.276 0.278 0.28 0.282 0.284
Frequency /Hz x/mm
(a) (b)
-3
x 10
3.5 0.235
X: 1428
3 Y: 0.003319

2.5 0.23
Amplitude /mm

y /mm
0.225
1.5
X: 160
1 Y: 0.0007563
0.22
0.5

0 0.215
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0.27 0.275 0.28 0.285 0.29
Frequency /Hz x /mm
(c) (d)
-3 Fan end from62.25s to62.5s Shaft orbit of fan end from62.25s to62.5s--89757rpm
x 10 0.245
6

0.24
5
0.235
4
Amplitude/mm

0.23
y/mm

3
0.225
2
0.22

1 0.215

0 0.21
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0.275 0.28 0.285 0.29 0.295 0.3 0.305 0.31
Frequency/Hz x /mm

(e) (f)
-3 Impeller end from62.25s to62.5s Shaft orbit of impeller end from62.25s to62.5s--90000rpm
x 10
2.5 0.325
X: 152
Y: 0.002455

2 0.32
Amplitude/mm

1.5 X: 1500 0.315

y/mm

Y: 0.001258

1 0.31

0.5 0.305

0 0.3
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0.33 0.335 0.34 0.345 0.35
Frequency/Hz x/mm

(f) (h)

Figure 10. Spectrum and shaft orbit for the 90,000-r/min speed-up test: (a1) spectrum at 50,000 r/min of fan end; (a2) shaft orbit
at 50,000 r/min of fan end; (b1) spectrum at 85,000 r/min of fan end; (b2) shaft orbit at 85,000 r/min of fan end; (c1) spectrum at
90,000 r/min of fan end; (c2) shaft orbit at 90,000 r/min of fan end; (d1) 90,000-r/min spectrum at impeller end and (d2) 90,000-r/min
shaft orbit of impeller end.

peak–peak value is ;15 mm in the coast-down test subsynchronous whirling disappears (at which the cor-
involving subsynchronous whirling. When the responding speed is ;80,000 r/min), the peak–peak
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

0.08

0.07

0.06

Peak - peak value / mm

0.05

0.04
Process containing
sub-synchronous whirling
0.03

0.02

0.01

0
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
n/(kr/min)

Figure 11. Waterfall chart for the 90,000-r/min speed-up and

Figure 12. Peak–peak value curve for the 90,000-r/min coast-
coast-down test.
down test.

value immediately decreases and remains at the level of to the experimental result, and the error is 10.5%. The
;5 mm before the speed drops to 20,000 r/min. When difference may be that, in the FE model, simplified stiff-
the rotational speed continues to decrease from ness and damping coefficients are applied, and these are
20,000 r/min, the peak–peak value increases rapidly insufficient for accurately describing the actual condi-
and there are two obvious peaks, the corresponding tions of the bearings.
frequencies of which are 84.8 and 47.6 Hz, respectively. Experiments also show that shaft orbit drift occurred
The rotor modes at the above two frequencies are when the rotor ran stably at different speeds. In this
shown in Figure 13. study, a 30,000-r/min comparative experiment was con-
In general, cylindrical and conical modes are usually ducted with two different bearing preloads being con-
concurrent. Previous FE results show that the two rigid sidered. It is widely known that the bearing preload can
mode natural frequencies of the prototype rotor are be applied by reducing the hole diameter of the bearing
very close to each other, and then the two modes corre- sleeve or by inserting the sheet into the foils, and in this
sponding to these two frequencies should be excited study we adopted the former. Two kinds of bearing
simultaneously during the coast-down experiment. As sleeves with different hole diameters were designed and
shown in Figure 13(a), when the working frequency manufactured. After assembly, the preload moments of
was reduced to 84.8 Hz, for the shaft orbits at both ends the rotor were measured to be 0.1 and 0.3 N m, respec-
of the rotor, their motion directions were in the same tively. The experimental results under a 0.1 N m preload
direction as that of the rotation speed. However, the moment are shown in Figure 14. It can be found that
two long axes corresponding to the two orbit ellipses both ends of the rotor exhibit shaft orbit drift, and the
had an included angle of ;40°, which means that the rotor ran at 30,000 r/min stably from 12 to 222 s. In the
positive conical mode and the positive parallel mode process, for the fan end, x and y crawled by ;13 and
occurred at the same time. As shown in Figure 13(b), ;12 mm, respectively. For the impeller end, x and y
when the speed was reduced to 47.6 Hz, the shaft orbit shifted by ;72 and ;45 mm, respectively. It can be seen
at the impeller end became enlarged and its rotation that the drift is more obvious for the impeller end, espe-
direction was opposite to the speed direction, but the cially in the horizontal direction.
rotation direction of the shaft orbit at the fan end was The experimental results under a 0.3 N m preload
the same as that of the speed. The above situation indi- moment are shown in Figure 15. It can be found that
cates that a negative conical mode and a positive paral- both ends of the rotor also exhibit shaft orbit drift, and
lel mode appear simultaneously. The peak–peak value the rotor ran at 30,000 r/min stably from 27 to 87 s. In
of the shaft orbit at the impeller end is 130 mm reaching the process, for the fan end, x and y crawled by ;72
the maximum bearing clearance, meaning that the jour- and ;22 mm, respectively. For the impeller end, x and
nal had already rubbed against the bearing. y shifted by ;95 and ;63 mm, respectively. By compar-
The mode frequencies of the bearing–rotor system ing Figures 14 and 15, it can be seen that, at both ends
are given in Table 3. It can be seen that the conical of the rotor, the drift in the horizontal direction was
mode frequency calculated using an FE analysis is close larger than that in the vertical direction, and the
Cheng et al. 9

Dimensionless length
Impeller
0.5 end
Impeller
end 0
Dimensionless length

0.6
Rotation
1
direction
0.25
Fan end 0.5
0.5
Rotation direction 0.3 0.4
0
0.4 0.35 0.3 Fan end
0.35
0.2 0.2
0.3 0.4 0.25
0.3
0.25 0.35
y/mm x/mm 0.4
0.45 0.1 0.45
0.2 0.5 y/mm
x/mm

(a) (b)

Figure 13. Rotor mode according to the peak value of the coast-down test: (a) rotor mode according to 84.8 Hz and (b) rotor
mode according to 47.6 Hz.

Table 3. Natural frequencies (in Hz) of the GFB–rotor system without impeller and fan.

Item Parallel whirling Conical whirling First bending Second bending

Hammering experiment – – 3140.0 7883.0

FEM 58.6 75.8 2861.1 8402.0
59.1 76.2 2962.8 8672.2
Coast-down experiment 84.8 – –

GFB: gas foil bearing; FEM: finite element model.

0.37
Orbit-fan end Orbit-impeller end 222s
0.285 222s 0.36
192s 192s
162s 0.35 162s
0.28
132s 132s
102s 0.34
y/mm

y/mm

0.275 72s 102s

42s 0.33 72s
12s
0.27 42s
0.32 12s
0.265
0.31

0.26 0.3
0.24 0.245 0.25 0.255 0.26 0.265 0.27 0.26 0.28 0.3 0.32 0.34 0.36
x/mm x/mm
(a) (b)

Figure 14. Shaft orbits under 30,000 r/min and 0.1 N m preload: (a) shaft orbit at fan end and (b) shaft orbit at impeller end.

maximum drift was in x at the impeller end. In addi- the rotor has the same regular pattern; that is, the
tion, for a large bearing preload, the shaft orbit drift steady working point of the rotor moves towards the
phenomenon was more dramatic, which will lead to location corresponding to a greater bearing capacity. It
collision if no safeguards are taken. also indicates that the bearing capacity of the bearing
According to views A and B in Figure 9, the drift continues to decline. One possible explanation is that
path of the shaft orbits at both ends of the rotor can be the gas deliverability of the bearing is insufficient,
drawn, as shown in Figure 16. It can be seen from the resulting in deterioration of bearing capacity. Because
figure that the drift of the shaft orbits at both ends of of gas film pressure, the top foil will deform three-
10 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

0.315 0.38
Orbit-fan end 87s 87s
0.31 Orbit-impeller end
77s
77s 0.36
0.305
67s
67s
0.3 47s 57s 0.34
y/mm

57s

y/mm
0.295
27s 47s
0.29 0.32
27s
0.285
0.3
0.28
37s 37s
0.275
0.24 0.26 0.28 0.3 0.32 0.34 0.3 0.32 0.34 0.36 0.38 0.4 0.42
x/mm x/mm
(a) (b)

Figure 15. Shaft orbits under 30,000 r/min and 0.3 N m preload: (a) shaft orbit at fan end and (b) shaft orbit at impeller end.

Displacement Displacement
y sensor y sensor

Steady
working point
Displacement Displacement
ω x sensor sensor ω
x

Impeller end Fan end

(a) (b)

Figure 16. Drift tendency of shaft orbits: (a) view A of impeller end and (b) view B of fan end.

dimensionally, manifesting as an indentation in the Conclusion

middle and a marginal uplift. The deformation can
In this study, a three-pad bidirectional GFB–high-speed
contribute to seal the gas in the bearing to a certain
motor rotor system was designed, and a prototype of a
extent; however, it will also hinder gas exchange with
10-kW, 120,000-r/min PMSM was developed using the
the outside. Normally, the high-pressure area of the
above scheme. Theoretical and experimental research
GFB will force the gas in the bearing to the outside,
on rotor dynamics was conducted. The main results are
while the negative pressure area of the GFB will also
as follows:
suck external gas, and then the gas flow rate will reach
a dynamic balance. However, if the foil is very soft, its
three-dimensional (3D) deformation will be greater, 1. The natural frequencies of the rigid mode of the
that is, the seal effect will become more significant, GFB–rotor system were calculated, and a
which may inhibit external air from flowing into the 90,000-r/min coast-down test was conducted.
bearing, so that gas deliverability of the bearing is The conical mode frequency calculated using
insufficient and the bearing capacity decreases. The the FE method is close to the experimental
phenomenon is more noticeable especially for a large result, and the error is 10.5%. The natural fre-
bearing preload and low-structural-rigidity foils. It is quencies of the rigid mode not only avoid the
suggested that the drift phenomenon can be eliminated working frequency of 2000 Hz but also are in
by introducing high-structural-rigidity foils. the very low speed region. The prototype can
Cheng et al. 11

reach 90,000 r/min successfully, which demon- driven spindle using neural network inverse scheme.
strates that the proposed supporting scheme in Mech Syst Signal Pr 2017; 88: 36–48.
this study is effective. 5. Yu L, Qi S and Geng H. Compressible gas lubrication
2. Experiments show that, when the rotating speed and elastic foil gas bearing technology. Beijing, China: Sci-
reaches 90,000 r/min, the whirling frequency is ence Press (in Chinese), 2011.
6. Lee D, Kim D and Sadashiva PR. Transient thermal
focused in the 140–160 Hz region, the amplitude
behavior of preloaded three-pad foil bearings: modeling
according to the whirling frequency component
and experiments. Trans ASME J Tribology 2011; 133:
is equivalent to or even exceeds the amplitude 021703.
of the working frequency, and the shaft orbit is 7. Andres SL and Kim TH. Forced nonlinear response of
petal like. The subsynchronous whirling is gas foil bearing supported rotors. Tribol Int 2008; 41:
caused by the self-excitation of the bearing– 704–715.
rotor system and is about twice that of the rotor 8. Sim K and Kim D. Design of flexure pivot tilting pads
rigid mode frequencies. gas bearings for high-speed oil-free microturbo machin-
3. Experiments also show that shaft orbit drift ery. Trans ASME J Tribology 2007; 129: 112–129.
occurs when the rotor runs stably at different 9. Kim TH, Lee J and Kim YM. Static structural character-
speeds. The ‘seal effect’ caused by 3D deforma- ization of multilayer gas foil journal bearings. In: Pro-
tion of the top foils could be the reason for the ceedings of the ASME Turbo Expo 2015: turbine technical
above phenomenon because it will lead to an conference and exposition, Montreal, QC, Canada, 15–19
June 2015. ASME.
insufficient deliverability of gas. It is suggested
10. Tian Y, Sun YH and Yu L. Structural stiffness and
that the drift phenomenon can be eliminated by
damping coefficients of a multi-leaf foil bearing with
introducing high-structural-rigidity foils. bump foils underneath. J Eng Gas Turb Power 2014; 136:
044501.
Declaration of conflicting interests 11. Zhang B, Qi SM, Feng S, et al. An experimental investiga-
tion of a microturbine simulated rotor supported on multi-
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
leaf gas foil bearings with backing bump foils. Proc IMechE
respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this
Part J: J Engineering Tribology 2018; 232: 1169–1180.
article.
12. Feng K, Zhao X, Huo C, et al. Analysis of novel hybrid
bump-metal mesh foil bearings. Tribol Int 2016; 103: 529–539.
Funding 13. Rimpel A and Kim DJ. Rotordynamic performance of
flexure pivot tilting pad gas bearings with vibration dam-
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
per. Trans ASME J Tribology 2009; 131: 021101.
port for the research, authorship and/or publication of this
14. Shrestha KS, Kim DJ and Kim YC. Experimental feasi-
article: This work was supported by the National Natural
bility study of radial injection cooling of three-pad air foil
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 51705413, 51705416
and 11502196) and Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation bearings. Trans ASME J Tribology 2013; 135: 041703.
(Grant No. 2017M613291XB). 15. Kim DJ and Lee DH. Design of three-pad hybrid air foil
bearing and experimental investigation on static perfor-
mance at zero running speed. J Eng Gas Turb Power
ORCID iDs 2010; 132: 122504.
Wenjie Cheng https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4406-5346 16. Weissert HD and Valley S. Bidirectional radial foil bear-
Zhikai Deng https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7723-5930 ing. Patent 20020054718A1, USA, 2002.
17. Feng S, Geng HP, Zhang B, et al. Testing of a 100kW oil-
free high-speed permanent-magnet synchronous motor.
References Int J Appl Electrom 2019; 59: 775–783.
1. Moore JJ, Lerche A, Allison T, et al. Development of a 18. Choe BS, Kim TH, Kim CH, et al. Rotordynamic beha-
high speed gas bearing test rig to measure rotordynamic vior of 225kW (300HP) class PMS motor-generator sys-
force coefficients. J Eng Gas Turb Power 2011; 133: tem supported by gas foil bearings. J Eng Gas Turb
102504. Power 2015; 137: 092505.
2. Sun X, Jin Z, Wang S, et al. Performance improvement 19. Kim DJ, Lee AS and Choi BS. Evaluation of foil bearing
of torque and suspension force for a novel five-phase performance and nonlinear rotordynamics of 120kW oil-
BFSPM machine for flywheel energy storage systems. free gas turbine generator. J Eng Gas Turb Power 2014;
IEEE T Appl Supercon 2019; 29: 0601505. 136: 032504.
3. Sun X, Su B, Wang S, et al. Performance analysis of sus- 20. Tian Y, Sun Y, Yang L, et al. Experimental studies on
pension force and torque in an IBPMSM with V-shape support systems of high speed motors with flexible
PMs for flywheel batteries. IEEE T Magn 2018; 54: squirrel-cage support and squeeze film dampers. Proc
8105504. Chinese Soc Elect Eng 2012; 32: 79–86.
4. Sun X, Su B, Chen L, et al. Precise control of a four 21. Guo ZY, Peng L, Feng K, et al. Measurement and predic-
degree-of-freedom permanent magnet biased active mag- tion of nonlinear dynamics of a gas foil bearing supported
netic bearing system in a magnetically suspended direct- rigid rotor system. Measurement 2018; 121: 205–217.