Work

A Microfabricated Spiral-Groove Turbopump Supported on Microball Bearings

Year: 2009

Type: article

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.

Source: Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems

DOI: 10.1109/jmems.2009.2035525

Authors: Christopher Mike Waits, Matthew McCarthy, Reza Ghodssi

Institutions: DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, College Park

Language: English

Topic: Advanced MEMS and NEMS Technologies

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Army Research Laboratory

OpenAlex ID: W2163591171

FWCI: 1.583

Cites: 23

Cited by: 22

Related to: 10