The Chevron Foil Thrust Bearing: Improved Performance Through Passive Thermal Management and Effective Lubricant Mixing

An improved foil thrust bearing is described that eliminates or reduces the need for forced cooling of the bearing foils while at the same time improves the load capacity of the bearing, enhances damping, provides overload tolerance, and eliminates the high speed load capacity drop-off that plagues the current state of the art. The performance improvement demonstrated by the chevron foil thrust bearing stems from a novel trailing edge shape that splays the hot lubricant in the thin film radially, thus preventing hot lubricant carry-over into the ensuing bearing sector. Additionally, the chevron shaped trailing edge induces vortical mixing of the hot lubricant with the gas that is naturally resident within the inter-pad region of a foil thrust bearing. The elimination of hot gas carry-over in combination with the enhanced mixing has enabled a completely passive thermally managed foil bearing design. Laboratory testing at NASA has confirmed the original analysis and reduced this concept to practice.