In this paper, a thermo-hydrodynamic model of the bump foil thrust gas bearing is developed, which solves the coupled gas film three-dimensional energy equation, non-isothermal Reynolds equation, and the foil deformation equation. The effects of bearing speed, thrust load, and external cooling gas on the bearing temperature field are calculated and analyzed. The test rig of foil thrust gas bearing was built to measure the bearing temperature under different working conditions. Both simulation and experiment results show that there exist temperature gradients on the top foil both in the circumferential and radial directions. The simulation results also shows that the top foil side of the gas film has the highest temperature value in the entire lubrication field, and the position of highest temperature moves radially inward on the thrust plate side as the rotor speed increases. The gas film temperature increases with the increasing rotor speed and bearing static load, and rotor speed has greater effects on the temperature variation. Cooling air flow passing through the bump foil is also considered in the simulations, and the cooling efficiency decreases as the mass of gas flow increases.

This paper presents a detailed three-dimensional (3D) thermo-elastic-hydrodynamic (TEHD) multi-physics model of the bump-type gas foil thrust bearing based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this model, the moving mesh technology is applied in the fluid flow domain, and the new boundary condition of fully developed flow is applied at the inlet and outlet boundaries, which is consistent with the continuous property of fluid flow and has better convergence performance in CFD. The groove between pads is set as the symmetry boundary. The contact pairs with Coulomb friction and contact/separation behaviors are considered in the structure deformation and heat transfer. The simulation results indicated that the boundary pressure has a significant influence on the foil deformation. It also revealed the heat flux transfer path and temperature distribution in the gas foil thrust-bearing (GFTB) system.