Journal bearings are often utilized due to their tolerance to wear, as they permit little to no surface-to-surface contact. A testing rig for one application of these bearings, utilized in a Dresser-Rand single stage compressor (ESH-1), was designed and installed at RIT in order to improve collaboration and relations between RIT and Dresser-Rand. This compressor uses a journal bearing, which takes several hours to remove and troubleshoot if any problems arise. This testing rig has been in progress since 2013, but there are still some design flaws that need to be addressed. The largest of these flaws is backlash from the motor controllers, which allows the actuator to come away from the bearing, effectively diminishing the reliability of following any prescribed load profile. There are also some modifications that need to be made, including additional measurement parameters, as well as diminishing the error within current measurements. The goal of this project is to improve and complete the testing rig. This includes installing and fixing the displacement measurements that are able to follow the load profile. The rig must also be capable of sensing vibration, oil flow, shaft eccentricity, and clearance. National Instruments' LabVIEW is to be used for the data collection and actuation of the motor controllers. Three journal bearings of different configurations will be designed to be used as test articles in the rig. This must be completed on a $5000 budget, and the resulting design must be consistent with the predetermined load profile in two dimensions similar to that of the ESH-1.

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Project Photo

Project Name

Loading, Measurement, Control, and Test of a Journal Bearing Test Platform

Project Number

P16453

Start Term

2151

End Term

2152

Faculty Guide

Jason Kolodziej/Bill Nowak

Primary Customer

Jason Kolodziej

Sponsor (financial support)

James Sorokes (Dresser-Rand)

Project Management

Project Photos and Videos

Problem Definition

Systems Design

Subsystem Design

Preliminary Detailed Design

Detailed Design

Project Readiness Package

Progress Reports

Build & Test Prep

Subsystem Build & Test

Integrated System Build & Test

Integrated System Build & Test with Customer Demo

Customer Handoff & Final Project Documentation

Progress Reports

Paper & Poster