Performance of Amorphous Carbon Coating in Turbocompressor Air Bearings 2002-01-1922
The U.S. Department of Energy has a program to develop fuel cell technology for automotive applications. For maximum efficiency, a fuel cell system requires a compact, light-weight, and highly efficient air compressor to provide a stream of clean air to the fuel cell stack. Meruit, Inc., is developing a turbocompressor for this application. Journal and thrust air bearings are two critical components of the turbocompressor that require low friction and excellent wear resistance. These components were coated with Argonne's new low-friction amorphous carbon coating and tested in an air bearing test rig. Results to date show that the coating provides the required friction reduction, as indicated by reduction in time to lift-off of the radial journal bearing during cyclic start/stop testing. The coating also prevented wall climbing which can cause bearing instability. In spite of a slight imbalance in the coated test bearing, wear on the coated surface, which occurred by polishing and mild abrasion, was at an acceptable level.
Citation: Ajayi, O., Woodford, J., Erdemir, A., and Fenske, G., "Performance of Amorphous Carbon Coating in Turbocompressor Air Bearings," SAE Technical Paper 2002-01-1922, 2002, https://doi.org/10.4271/2002-01-1922. Download Citation
Author(s):
Oyelayo O. Ajayi, John B. Woodford, Ali Erdemir, George R. Fenske
Affiliated:
Energy Technology Div., Argonne National Laboratory
Pages: 11
Event:
Future Car Congress
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Related Topics:
Fuel cells
Bearings
Test facilities
Compressors
Coatings, colorants, and finishes
Wear
Drag
Thrust
SAE MOBILUS
Subscribers can view annotate, and download all of SAE's content.
Learn More »