Experimental Research on the Levitation Support Way of Ultrasonic Thrust Bearing

In this paper, two ways of levitation support of ultrasonic thrust bearing are disscussed. Based on the mechanism of the near-field ultrasonic levitation, the front cover of the piezoelectric transducer is designed as conical structure.The ultrasonic radiation pressure which distributes on the conical surface can be decomposed into the axial and radial supporting the levitation subject bidirectionally. Finnally contrast experiments are carried out, indicating that when the requirement of levitation mass being satisfied, the way of bidirectional support runs more stably compared with the pure way of the axial levitation support.It supposes that the way of bidirectional levitation support is more conducive to improve the rotating speed of the rotor.