Current wearable technologies strive to incorporate more medical functionalities in wearable devices for tracking health conditions and providing information for timely medical treatments. Beyond tracking of a wearer’s physical activities and basic vital signs, the advancement of wearable healthcare devices aspires to continuously monitor health parameters, such as cardiovascular indicators. To properly monitor cardiovascular health, the wearables should accurately measure blood pressure in real-time. However, current devices on the market are not validated for continuous monitoring of blood pressure at a clinical level. To develop wearable healthcare devices such applications, they must be validated by considering various parameters, such as the effects of varying skin properties. Being located between the blood vessel and the wearable device, the skin can affect the sensor readings of the device. The primary goal of this study is to investigate the effect of skin property on the radial pulse measurements. To this end, a range of artificial vein-inserted skin samples with varying properties is fabricated using Magneto-Rheological Elastomers (MRE), materials whose mechanical properties can be altered by external magnetic fields. The samples include layers to simulate the structure of skin and a silicone vein for the pulse to pass through. Note that they are not intended to represent real human skin-vein properties but created to vary a range of stiffness properties to carry out the study. Experiments are performed using a cam system capable of generating realistic human pulse waveforms to pass through the samples. During the indentation testing, the sample is compressed using a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) to record experienced surface pressure, allowing the pulse patterns to be studied. Various samples are used to probe the effects of base resin hardness, iron content, and magnetic field. A pressure sensor incorporated in the cam simulator is used to benchmark the internal pulse pressure of the vein while the DMA indents the sample in order to note the pulse pressures being passed through the sample. Test results show that the properties of the skin influence the resulting pulse behaviors, particularly the ratio of the recorded pulse pressures from the sensor and the DMA.

Artificial and synthetic skins are widely used in the medical field; used in applications ranging from skin grafts to suture training pads. There is a growing need for artificial skins with tunable properties. However, current artificial skins do not take into account the variability of mechanical properties between individual humans as well as the age-dependent properties of human skin. Furthermore, there has been little development in artificial skins based on these properties. Thus, the primary purpose of this research is to develop variable stiffness artificial skin samples using magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) whose properties that can be controlled using external magnetic fields. In this study, multiple MRE skin samples were fabricated with varying filler particle volume contents. Using a precision dynamic mechanical analyzer, a series of indenting experiments were performed on the samples to characterize their mechanical properties. The samples were tested using a spherical indenter that indented a total depth of 1 mm with a speed of 0.01 mm/s and unloaded at the same rate. The results show that the modulus or stiffness increases significantly as the iron percent (w/w) in the sample increases. Additionally, the stiffness of the sample increases proportional to the intensity of the applied external magnetic field. To assess the MRE samples’ variability of properties, the testing results were compared with in vivo human skin testing data. The results show the MRE samples are feasible to represent the age-dependent stiffness demonstrated in in vivo human skin testing. The MRE materials studied will be further studied as a variable-stiffness skin model in medical devices, such as radial pulse simulators.

The widespread application of gas foil bearings (GFBs) to high-performance microturbomachinery requires accurate predictions for their physical models based on experimental test data. This paper presents the experimental measurements and model predictions of Duffing’s vibration in a rotor supported on GFBs with base excitation, implemented for small oil-free turbomachinery. The rotor consisted of an impeller at one end and a thrust collar at the other end. Two gas foil journal bearings (GFJBs) located between the impeller and thrust collar supported the rotor, and one pair of gas foil thrust bearings (GFTBs) supported the thrust collar. A series of dynamic excitation tests on the rotor-GFBs system was conducted with increasing dynamic load and excitation frequency, with the rotor operating at 20,000 rpm. An electromagnetic shaker provided dynamic sine sweep loads at excitation frequencies of 10–200 Hz to the test rig base in the axial and horizontal directions. An accelerometer installed on the test rig measured the acceleration due to the dynamic loads and provided it to the shaker controller for use as a reference signal. The acceleration level was controlled to ensure a constant value, while the excitation frequency increased. During the excitation tests, two sets of orthogonally positioned eddy current sensors and one axially positioned eddy current sensor recorded the rotor’s horizontal, vertical, and axial vibrations. The test measurements demonstrated that the rotor’s vibrational motions synchronous to the shaker excitation were the most dominant. At a constant dynamic load, as the excitation frequency increased, the amplitude of the rotor motion gradually increased until it reached a certain frequency, after which it jumped down at the higher frequencies. This amplitude jump-down phenomenon became more pronounced as the dynamic load increased. In general, both the peak amplitude and jump-down frequency increased nonlinearly with the increasing dynamic loads, thus revealing the typical Duffing’s vibration. For benchmarking against the test measurements, a previously developed numerical integration of a nonlinear equation of motion (EOM) was modified to predict the rotor’s vibrational motions with base excitations to an acceleration of 9 G (gravity). This nonlinear equation uses a third-order polynomial equation that best fits the measured structural foil bearing deflection versus static load. Comparisons of the predicted synchronous amplitude and acceleration of the rotor for the increasing excitation frequencies and the predicted waterfall plot of the amplitude of the rotor motion with the test measurements showed excellent agreements, thus validating the predictive model of the rotor-GFB system with base excitation.

Gas foil bearings (GFBs) have clear advantages over oil-lubricated and rolling element bearings, by virtue of low power loss, oil-free operation in compact units, and rotordynamic stability at high speeds. However, because of the inherent low gas viscosity, GFBs have lower load capacity than the other bearings. In particular, accurate measurement of load capacity and dynamic characteristics of gas foil thrust bearings (GFTBs) is utmost important to widening their applications to high performance turbomachinery. In this study, a series of excitation tests were performed on a small oil-free turbomachinery with base excitations in the rotor axial direction to measure the dynamic load characteristics of a pair of six-pad, bump-type GFTBs, which support the thrust collar. An electromagnetic shaker provided dynamic sine sweep loads to the test bench (shaking table), which held rigidly the turbomachinery test rig for increasing excitation frequency from 10 Hz to 200 Hz. The magnitude of the shaker dynamic load, represented as an acceleration measured on the test rig, was increased up to 9 G (gravity). An eddy current sensor installed on the test rig housing measured the axial displacement (or vibrational amplitude) of the rotor thrust collar during the excitation tests. The axial acceleration of the rotor relative to the test rig was calculated using the measured displacement. A single degree-of-freedom base excitation model identified the frequency-dependent dynamic load capacity, stiffness, damping, and loss factor of the test GFTB for increasing shaker dynamic loads and increasing bearing clearances. The test results show that, for a constant shaker force and the test GFTB with a clearance of 155 μm, an increasing excitation frequency increases the dynamic load carried by the test GFTB, i.e., bearing reaction force, until a certain value of the frequency where it jumps down suddenly because of the influence from Duffing’s vibrations of the rotor. The bearing stiffness increases and the damping decreases dramatically as the excitation frequency increases. Generally, the bearing loss factor ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 independent of the frequency. As the shaker force increases, the bearing dynamic load, stiffness, damping, and loss factor increase depending on the excitation frequency. Interestingly, the agreements between the measured GFTB dynamic load versus the thrust runner displacement, the measured GFTB static load versus the structural deflection, and the predicted static load versus the thrust runner displacement are remarkable. Further tests with increasing GFTB clearances of 155, 180, 205, and 225 μm revealed that the vibrational amplitude increases and the jump-down frequency decreases with increasing clearances. The bearing load increases, but the bearing stiffness, damping, and loss factor decrease slightly as the clearance increases. The test results after a modification of the GFTB by rotating one side bearing plate by 30° relative to the other side bearing plate revealed insignificant changes in the dynamic characteristics. The present dynamic performance measurements provide a useful database of GFTBs for use in microturbomachinery.

This paper presents rotordynamic performance measurements of multilayer gas foil journal bearings (GFJBs) supporting the rotor of oil-free microturbomachinery, and a comparison with the model predictions. A series of rotor coast-down tests from 60 krpm were conducted to compare the rotordynamic performances of three previously developed multilayer GFJBs: types A, B, and C. During the tests, two sets of orthogonally positioned displacement sensors recorded the horizontal and vertical rotor motions, and an axially positioned displacement sensor measured the thrust of the runner axial motion. The test results revealed that the type C GFJBs have a superior rotordynamic capability over the other types. The additional coast-down tests from 100 krpm for the type C showed that the synchronous motions of the rotor are dominant at up to ∼50 krpm, but that large amplitudes of subsynchronous motion associated with the natural frequency of a rotor-GFJB system occur above this speed. Thermal transient response measurements were conducted using four k-type thermocouples at increasing rotor speeds of 20 to 100 krpm with increments of 10 krpm. The operation time required to establish steady-state temperatures was approximately 25 min for each speed. For most of the speeds tested, the front GFJB near the rotor impeller end showed the lowest temperatures, and both the rear GFJB near the thrust runner end and the permanent magnet (PM) motor showed the highest temperatures. The GFTB showed the lowest temperature at low speeds of below 50 krpm, and the highest temperature at the top speed of 100 krpm owing to the increasing axial load caused by the impeller force. The measured impeller pressure and motor output power increased nonlinearly with the increasing rotor speed and fits best with the second-order and third-order polynomial equations, respectively. The measured axial displacement revealed that the rotor moved axially up to ∼ 270 μm toward the impeller side as the speed increased to 100 krpm. Further experiments using a decrease in radial clearance of 30 μm demonstrated a suppression of the large amplitude of the subsynchronous rotor motion to a certain degree. In addition, the onset speed of the subsynchronous motions increased to 80 krpm for the type C GFJBs with the decrease in the radial clearance. Rotordynamic model predictions with the predicted GFJB stiffness and damping coefficients were benchmarked against the test data. The predicted natural frequencies, onset speed of instability (OSI) where the damping ratio became negative, and synchronous rotor response versus speed agreed reasonably with the measured whirl frequencies of the subsynchronous motions, the onset speed of subsynchronous motions (OSS), and the filtered synchronous rotor motion versus speed, respectively. The predictions also showed that the OSI increased from 50 krpm to 80 krpm with a decrease in the radial clearance, thus validating the present rotordynamic model.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the structural performance of multilayer gas foil bearings (GFBs). Three test GFBs and a dummy rotor with a diameter of 28 mm were manufactured for application to a series of structural tests. The test bearings were designed with an identical axial length of 22.5 mm, a radial clearance of 0.170 mm, and a mechanical preload of 0.050 mm at a 50% offset within the (machined) lobe bearing housings. All the bearings had multilayer (doublelayer) thin foils supported by an elastic bump strip layer, i.e., a configuration with a top foil, shim foil, and bump strip layer. Note that the shim foil is installed between the top foil and bump strip layer to enhance the dry-friction damping effect. The first bearing (Type A) had a single top foil, single shim foil, and single bump strip layer. All had an arc length of 360°. The second version (Type B) had a single top foil with an arc length of 360°, three shim foils with an arc length of 120°, and three bump strip layers with an arc length of 120°. The third version (Type C) had three top foils, three shim foils, and three bump strip layers. All had an arc length of 120°. The top foil is spot-welded to a key that is inserted into an axial key slot in the bearing housing. The shim foil and bump strip layer are inserted into an axial foil slot in the bearing housing. A series of static load-deflection tests were conducted on the test GFBs floating on the fixed, non-rotating test rotor. The measured results for the bearing deflection and structural stiffness were found to be in very good agreement with the model predictions for a GFB with a mechanical preload. In general, the test results were found to exhibit a similar radial sway space (or assembly radial clearance) and structural stiffness for all three test GFBs. Small local hysteresis loops appeared as the magnitudes of the load increased, thus determining the local structural stiffness and structural loss factor versus the displacement. The local stiffness was found to increase while the loss factor decreased as the magnitude of the displacement increased. The estimated structural loss factor can be as large as 0.9 within the radial sway space under low-load conditions.

A fuel performance analysis code for a very high temperature gas-cooled reactor (VHTR) COPA ( Co ated Pa rticle) is being developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). The COPA code consists of nine modules: BURN, TEMTR, TEMPEB, TEMBL, MECH, FAIL, FPREL, ABAQ, and MPRO. The BURN determines neutron flux and fluence at a location of a reactor core, and then calculates a fuel burnup, a fission rate per volume and a fission product inventory throughout a fuel particle and a fuel element. The TEMTR, TEMPEB and TEMBL calculate the temperature distributions in a coated fuel particle, a pebble and a fuel block by using a one-dimensional finite difference method, respectively. The MECH performs mechanical calculations on a coated fuel particle by using a finite element method. The FAIL performs probabilistic calculations to estimate the failure probabilities of the coating layers during an experiment or a reactor operation. The FPREL estimates the migrations of gaseous and metallic fission products through a fuel particle and a fuel element by using a one-dimensional finite difference method. The ABAQ performs the analysis of the crack and debonding in a coated fuel particle. The MPRO calculates the material properties of the kernel, low-density pyrocarbon, high-density pyrocarbon, silicon carbide, matrix graphite, and structural graphite. Each module is used to produce input data for other modules or is inserted into other modules. The COPA code is one of the computer codes taking part in the IAEA-CRP-6 benchmarking program. The stresses and failure fractions calculated by the COPA-MECH and COPA-FAIL showed good agreements with the results by the other countries’ codes. In order to establish a good database of the related material properties, KAERI is participating in an international irradiation experiment, is planning its own irradiation and post-irradiation experiments, and will perform ab-initio calculations on the fuel materials.