Compliant foil fluid film thrust bearing with tilting pad underspring

摘要

A compliant foil fluid film thrust bearing including a thrust disk (24) rotor, fluid foils (40), spring foils (42), a thrust plate (28), and a housing (22) thrust surface. The non-rotating but compliant fluid foils (42), mounted on the thrust plate (28) and/or housing (22) thrust surface and positioned adjacent to the thrust disk (24), have open faced channels that induce regenerative vortex flow patterns in the process fluid. The multiple spring foils together provide a tilting pad support for the fluid folds but allow them to follow the axial and overturning motion of the thrust disk. The interaction of the tilting pad underspring supports and the circumferential fluid pressure gradients in the process fluid between the fluid foils and the thrust disk rotor assure that the fluid foils will assume hydrodynamically efficient convex shapes on the surfaces adjacent to the rotor regardless of the load applied to the thrust bearing.