An Overview of Bearing Candidates for the Next Generation of Reusable Liquid Rocket Turbopumps

Jimin Xu; Changhuan Li; Xusheng Miao; Cuiping Zhang; Xiaoyang Yuan

doi:10.1186/s10033-020-00442-6

Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering >

2020 , Vol. 33 >Issue 2: 26 - 26

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s10033-020-00442-6

Review

An Overview of Bearing Candidates for the Next Generation of Reusable Liquid Rocket Turbopumps

Jimin Xu ,
Changhuan Li ,
Xusheng Miao ,
Cuiping Zhang ,
Xiaoyang Yuan

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1. Institute of Tribology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China;
2. Aerospace Propulsion Institute, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Xi'an 710100, China;
3. Science Technology on Combustion, Internal Flow and Thermal-structure Laboratory, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710012, China;
4. Superconducting Materials Research Center Laboratory, Northwest Institute for Non-ferrous Metal Research, Xi'an 710016, China;
5. Key Laboratory of Education Ministry for Modern Design and Rotor-Bearing System, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China

Received date: 2019-07-31

Revised date: 2020-01-09

Online published: 2020-06-17

Supported by

Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51805131), Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China (Grant No. 2018M640580) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (CN) Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (Grant No. JZ2018HGBZ0155)

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Abstract

There is a consensus in the aerospace field that the development of reusable liquid rockets can effectively reduce the launch expense. The pursuit of a long service life and reutilization highly depends on the bearing components. However, the rolling element bearings (REBs) used in the existing rocket turbopumps present obvious and increasing limitations due to their mechanical contacting mode. For REBs, high rotational speed and long service life are two performance indexes that mutually restrict each other. To go beyond the DN value (the product of the bearing bore and rotational speed) limit of REBs, the major space powers have conducted substantial explorations on the use of new types of bearings to replace the REB. This review discusses, first, the crucial role of bearings in rocket turbopumps and the related structural improvements of REBs. Then, with the prospect of application to the next generation of reusable liquid rocket turbopumps, the bearing candidates investigated by major space powers are summarized comprehensively. These promising alternatives to REBs include fluid-film, foil, and magnetic bearings, together with the novel superconducting compound bearings recently proposed by our team. Our more than ten years of relevant research on fluid-film and magnetic bearings are also introduced. This review is meaningful for the development of long-life and highly reliable bearings to be used in future reusable rocket turbopumps.

Key words： Aerospace; Reusable liquid rocket turbopumps; Rolling element bearings; Bearing candidates; Review

Cite this article

Jimin Xu , Changhuan Li , Xusheng Miao , Cuiping Zhang , Xiaoyang Yuan . An Overview of Bearing Candidates for the Next Generation of Reusable Liquid Rocket Turbopumps[J]. Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2020 , 33(2) : 26 -26 . DOI: 10.1186/s10033-020-00442-6

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