A global heat balance method for supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO₂) high speed tilting pad bearings was developed, in which the real gas effect, variable thermodynamic properties, and turbulence effect were considered. The bearing characteristics can be obtained by the partial derivative method embracing dynamic variations of complete variables. Then thermohydrodynamic lubrication mechanisms for S-CO₂ bearings are studied, and results indicate that the real gas effect of thermal compressibility is significant. The influence of the thermal effect on the static and dynamic characteristics of bearings is caused by changes in density, specific heat, and thermal expansion coefficient rather than viscosity, which is totally different from oil bearings. In general, the influence of thermohydrodynamic lubrication on static characteristics of S-CO₂ tilting pad bearings is more obvious than that on dynamic coefficients. For example, the maximum deviation of damping coefficients of a bearing with parameters in this research at a certain speed range is 8%, and that of the load capacity at the corresponding speed is 10.7%. However, the influence of the thermal effect on dynamic coefficients is varied at different rotating speeds.

Molten salt heat exchangers are pivotal components in advanced energy systems, where their high-temperature stability and efficient heat transfer performance are critical for system reliability. This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent advancements in molten salt heat exchanger technology, focusing on their application in nuclear energy, concentrated solar power, and thermal energy storage systems. Key design considerations, including thermophysical properties of molten salts and operational conditions, are analyzed to highlight performance optimization strategies. The review traces the evolution from traditional shell-and-tube heat exchangers to compact designs like printed circuit heat exchangers, emphasizing improvements in heat transfer efficiency and power density. Challenges such as material corrosion, manufacturing complexities, and flow dynamics are critically examined. Furthermore, future research directions are proposed, including the development of high-performance materials, advanced manufacturing techniques, and optimized geometries. This review aims to consolidate dispersed research findings, address technological bottlenecks, and provide a roadmap for the continued development of molten salt heat exchangers in high-temperature energy systems.

Supercritical CO₂ foil bearings are promising bearing technology for supercritical CO₂ high-speed turbomachinery. The partial derivative method including complete variable perturbation of the compressible turbulent lubrication Reynolds equation is effective to predict the frequency dependent dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of supercritical CO₂ bearings. In this research, the structural perturbation of foil dynamic model was introduced into this method and then the dynamic coefficients of supercritical CO₂ foil bearings were calculated. The results of parametric analysis show that the structural loss factor has little influence on the trend of dynamic coefficients changing with the dimensionless support stiffness but mainly affects the value of stiffness coefficients as well as damping coefficients. Due to the turbulence effect, the bearing number is not able to directly determine the characteristics of supercritical CO₂ foil bearings, which is different from air bearings. Compared to the bearing number, the influence of the average Reynolds number on the change of dynamic coefficients with dimensionless support stiffness is more obvious.

Tilting pad bearings are appropriate for the trend of high efficiency and reliability design of rotating machinery due to their high stability. The laminar and turbulent flow states exist in the lubricating oil film of high-speed and heavy-load tilting pad bearings simultaneously. By perturbing the multiple flow state lubrication model with a partial derivative method, together with the pad-pivot structural perturbations, the frequency-dependent stiffness and damping coefficients of tilting pad bearings, embracing the effect of dynamical variations of both turbulence and pressure-viscous, were numerically solved in this research. The importance of each perturbed variable was studied, and the results indicate that the perturbed film thickness included in turbulence coefficients perturbations is significant enough to be taken into account otherwise the equivalent stiffness coefficients will be obviously overestimated. Unlike the perturbed film thickness, the consideration of the perturbed viscosity is optional, because it makes the stiffness and damping coefficients larger at both laminar and turbulent flow states. For a simplified simulation and conservative prediction results, the perturbed viscosity can be neglected.