A foil thrust bearing forms the primary rotating interface for a film riding face seal. This face seal includes a spring system that will allow the entire assembly to translate axially relative to a static attachment. The complete assembly will form a hybrid foil/film riding face seal that shows much promise at being sufficiently flexible to enable operation in a gas turbine engine. The seal includes a flexible top plate having a non-flat surface under its working conditions, and a spring support system to allow the top plate to accommodate axial excursions and out-of-flat distortions.

An improved foil thrust bearing includes a cooling fluid flow turbulence generating disk placed between other foil thrust bearing elements, such as thrust bearing elements and underspring elements. The inventive turbulence generating disk generally provides improved transfer of heat through the foil and into the cooling fluid of foil thrust bearings that may be used for high rotor speed applications. It accomplishes this by improving the transfer of heat through the foil and into the cooling fluid by generating turbulent cooling flow adjacent to the back of the top foil. The turbulent flow is generated primarily by a series of turns or protrusions introduced into the cooling flow stream. Alternate embodiments are disclosed that provide the turbulence generating elements as part of the underside of thrust bearing elements.

A turbocharger includes a foil bearing assembly mounted in a center housing between a compressor and a turbine of the turbocharger. The bearing assembly forms a unit installable into the center housing from one end thereof, and the center housing is a one-piece construction. The bearing assembly includes a foil thrust bearing assembly disposed between two foil journal bearings. The journals foils are mounted in annular bearing carriers fixedly mounted in the center housing. A radially inner portion of a thrust disk of the thrust bearing assembly is captured between a shaft and a shaft sleeve of the turbocharger. The center housing defines cooling air passages for supplying cooling air to the foil bearings, and optionally includes a water jacket for circulating engine coolant through the center housing.