Foil Bearing Dust Filtration

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to design and prototype a foil bearing dust filter to be used in Honeywell auxiliary power units (APU). Currently, APUs feature no filter before the foil bearing leading to frequent maintenance and damaged parts. This project aimed to design a filter that would improve foil bearing life and eliminate maintenance by significantly reducing the amount of contaminants entering the foil bearing. A test rig was designed to evaluate the performance of the filter. The test rig simulated an environment with high concentrations of contaminants in the air by supplying dust into the rig at a constant rate. The test rig also simulated flow conditions experienced inside APUs. A flow of Mach 0.1 ± 0.01 was generated, and a pressure drop large enough to draw air into the filter. SolidWorks and ANSYS were used to design the filter according to the customer’s requirements. Overall, the team provided Honeywell with three filter prototypes that could potentially be used to solve the foil bearing problem.