Design and experiment of oil lubricated five-leaf foil bearing test-bed

Multileaf foil bearing has various advantages including long-life, high-speed, low power loss, etc. Oil lubricated multileaf foil bearing compared with gas lubricated foil bearing is more favorable to greatly decrease foil performance requirements, foil surface coating technology, and foil processing. The special oil lubricated five-leaf foil bearing test-bed is designed and established, and a speed of 30,000 rpm is achieved primarily. The experiments including the influence of different radial clearances on rotor dynamical characteristics, speed run-up and coastdown, etc., are implemented on the test-bed. The experimental results indicate that oil lubricated multileaf foil bearing can offer high-speed, long-life, and lower friction loss. Radial clearance plays an important role to rotor dynamical characteristics. Moreover, oil lubricated multileaf foil bearing represents strong adaptive capacity of speed run-up and coastdown, and the capacity of withstanding impact and vibration.