Standardized integral instrumentation of gas foil bearings for condition and operation monitoring

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Clemens Gühmann; Professor Dr.-Ing. Robert Liebich
• Subject Area: Engineering Design, Machine Elements, Product Development ; Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics ; Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering ; Measurement Systems
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 466782279

A gas foil bearing is being developed as a sensor-integrated machine element that aquires the physical quantities of temperature, instantaneous speed and lift-off state of the shaft in-situ without restricting the primary functionality. The latter are determined indirectly via algorithms and methods (virtual sensor technology) from direct measurement of acceleration, structure-borne or airborne sound. By means of these direct measured or estimated quantities, it is possible to monitor the condition of the bearing itself and to aquire data for monitoring the operation of the bearing-mounted rotor system. The necessary wireless sensor network consists of a base station, which enables communication with higher-level control systems, and an energy autarkic sensor node, that is integrated into the gas foil bearing. The energy harvesting approaches of thermoelectric generator, piezoelectric foil and piezoelectric vibration generator are optimised and, if necessary, combined for energy self-sufficient operation. In addition, a flexible operating strategy is being developed that allows the necessary data to be provided in every operating state. In terms of energy autarkic operation, the measurement data is also compressed prior to data transmission by means of in-situ processing. A model and hardware-in-the-loop simulation environment is being further developed and used to parallelise the mechanical design work and electronics development. The aim of the design is to achieve complete integration within the installation space of a gas foil bearing.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2305: Sensor-Integrated Machine Elements pave the way for Widespread Digitalization