SBIR Phase II: Development of Self-Sensing Active Control Foil Bearing

这个小企业创新和研究（SBIR）二期项目将开发一种“自感知主动控制箔轴承”（SSACFB）。通过在箔片的下侧附加一堆压电陶瓷元件，可以通过压电元件产生的电压来确定箔片上的载荷。同时，压电堆也作为执行器，将箔片从轴上推/拉，以增加轴承的载荷能力和/或确保在低轴转速下的起飞。该概念的新颖之处在于消除了传感系统，将传感和控制集成在单个单元中，并主动控制轴承，以提供长寿命，更低的功率损失和更大的负载能力。此外，弹性床和类金刚石涂层的箔元件将在本提案中解决。第一阶段发现该轴承的自感知和可控性是可行的。构建和测试一个完全仪器化，原型自传感可控箔轴承将在第二阶段进行。潜在的商业应用计划在15亿美元的轴承市场，目前以每年约11%的速度增长，预计未来将适度增长。SSACFB技术旨在满足无油高速可控轴承的商业需求。SSACFB的成功开发将影响高速轴承的应用，特别是在航空航天和其他高速精密制造行业。

This Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a 'Self-Sensing Active Control Foil Bearing' (SSACFB). Through the use of a stack of piezoelectric ceramic elements attached at the lower side of foil elements, the load on the foil element can be determined from the voltage generated by the piezoelectric elements. At the same time, the piezoelectric stack also acts as an actuator to push/pull the foil element from the shaft to increase the loading capacity of the bearing and/or to ensure lift-off at low shaft rotational speeds. The novelty of the concept is in elimination of the sensing system, the integration of sensing and control in a single unit, and the active control of the bearing to provide long-life, lower power loss, and larger loading capacity. In addition, elastic bed and diamond-like coatings on the foil element will be addressed in this proposal. Phase I found the self-sensing and controllability in this bearing to be feasible. Construction and testing of a fully instrumented, prototype self-sensing controllable foil bearing will be performed in Phase II.Potential commercial applications are planned in the $1.5 billion bearing market, which is growing presently at about 11% annually with moderate growth forecasted in the future. The SSACFB technology is aimed at commercial needs for oilless high-speed controllable bearings. Successful development of SSACFB will impact high speed bearing applications, especially in the aerospace/aeronautic and other high speed precision manufacturing industries.