Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HIPERFAN (HIgh PERformance Journal Bearing Technology for new geared TurboFAN generations)
Teaser
The development of new journal bearing materials is viewed as key enabler for future geared turbofan engines where extreme operational conditions- out of industry experience- exist. The challenging conditions of having sliding speeds >40 m/s and loads exceeding 35 Mpa are not...
Summary
The development of new journal bearing materials is viewed as key enabler for future geared turbofan engines where extreme operational conditions- out of industry experience- exist. The challenging conditions of having sliding speeds >40 m/s and loads exceeding 35 Mpa are not met by state of the art journal bearing materials and new journal bearing material concepts are demanded.
Therefore, HIPERFAN aims for the development of the most robust and reliable high performance journal bearing materials and associated manufacturing processes, and will support the optimization of the entire tribological journal bearing system to enable the new Ultrafanâ„¢ and consequently the Very High Bypass Ratio (VHBR) engine technology.
HIPERFAN will contribute to the development of new Journal Bearing Materials that can operate at ≥ 15% higher speeds in combination with ≥15% higher loads compared to state of the art materials.
The HIPERFAN concept of direct coated bearing materials provides the most efficient solution for the new geared turbofan technology in comparison to coated bushings or roller bearings: due to decreased weight and space it will contribute to the operation of very high bypass ratio engines realizing significant environmental benefits e.g.:
• Up to 25% fuel burn and CO2 emission reduction relative to year 2000 baseline (consistent with 10% reduction relative to year 2014 baseline)
• Noise levels making a significant step towards to ACARE 2035 targets (- 11 EPNdB per operation relative to 2000 situation: including engine, nacelle, aircraft technologies airframe noise reduction, novel aircraft configurations and ATM benefits)
• Contribute to delivery of NOX emission reductions through reduced fuel burn. Specific objectives will not be defined owing to the strong dependency on overall core engine cycle decisions.
Work performed
HIPERFAN contributes to a new approach to direct coat the specimens and will take the status quo of current established journal bearing materials to a new level. Simulation assisted design and production of the individual single layer combined with tribometer testings over the entire Stribeck curve and under emergency running conditions (already in the early development stage) will be established within HIPERFAN and will enable a fast screening of multiple material combinations and will develop a comprehensive understanding of the underlying tribological system. Within the frame of HIPERFAN new (systematically analysed, characterized and optimized) journal bearing materials will be developed.
In the first reporting period, various hardware setups located at the different project partners have been redesigned, adapted and successfully tested to cover the needs of HIPERFAN. Proper metallurgical screening methods and related analysis routines have been established to assess numerous coating properties. For the tribological testing appropriate test-programs have been designed to verify the capability of the state of the art materials and other deposited coatings. These State of the Art Materials were successfully characterized acting as Baseline for the new single layer materials established via HIPERFAN.
The process simulation tool has been updated and correlated with experiments to predict several properties such as film thickness distribution and chemical composition.
Final results
Novel simulation tools will allow the design of new coatings and production processes in new ways that will reduce development times significantly while ensuring that the new developments are more targeted to the desired characteristics of the coating.
The to be developed coatings will be one of many crucial enablers of the technology “geared turbofan engines†allowing this technology to be implemented for high end products.
The HIPERFAN concept of direct coated bearing materials provides the most efficient solution for the new geared turbofan technology in comparison to coated bushings or roller bearings and contributes to significant reduction of CO2, NOx and Noise emission.
Additionally, especially lead-free journal bearing materials will be investigated and will provide additional environmental benefits over the whole life cycle (manufacturing, operation, maintenance and disposal) of the new journal bearing components.