A Microfabricated Spiral-Groove Turbopump Supported on Microball Bearings
Name
Waits-2010-A Microfabricated Spiral-Groove Turbopump Supported on Microball Bearings.pdf
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1.03 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Waits, Christopher Mike
McCarthy, Matthew
Ghodssi, Reza
Date Issued
February 2010
Journal
Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Citation
Waits, Christopher Mike, Matthew McCarthy, and Reza Ghodssi. “A Microfabricated Spiral-Groove Turbopump Supported on Microball Bearings.” Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems 19.1 (2010): 99–109. © Copyright 2012 IEEE
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The development of a microfabricated turbopump that is capable of delivering liquid fuel with the flow rates and pressures required for portable power generation is reported. The device is composed of a spiral-groove viscous pump driven by a radial in-flow microturbine and supported using a newly developed encapsulated microball bearing. A planar-contact bearing raceway is employed using 285-??m -diameter 440C stainless steel microballs. A modification to the raceway geometry, as compared to previous designs, has enabled repeatable operation of the microturbine at speeds up to 87 000 r/min, showing negligible variations in performance for over 6 h and 3.8 million revolutions. Pumping has been demonstrated with water as the working fluid for flow rates of 10-80 mL/h and pressures rises of up to 8.2 kPa. This is the first application to incorporate an encapsulated microball bearing support mechanism, to achieve rotational speeds in excess of 50 000 r/min using a contact bearing, and to demonstrate reliable operation of more than 1 million revolutions.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1109/jmems.2009.2035525
