Patent ID: 8253292

Claim:
A turbine generator equipped with one or more combinations of hydrostatic bearings, comprising: a turbine shaft; an electric motor rotor mounted on the turbine shaft and an electric motor stator positioned around the rotor; a thrust equalizing mechanism device supporting the turbine shaft when a rotation speed of the turbine shaft is greater than a rotation threshold; an upper bearing combination supporting the turbine shaft and positioned at an upper portion of the turbine shaft, the upper bearing combination including an upper hydrostatic bearing, an upper bushing, and an another upper bearing; an upper feed line extracting a fluid from a main circuit of the turbine generator and feeding a pressurized fluid to the upper hydrostatic bearing; a lower bearing combination supporting the turbine shaft and positioned at a middle portion of the turbine shaft, the lower bearing combination including a lower hydrostatic bearing, a lower bushing, and an another lower bearing, wherein the another lower bearing is a lower touchdown ball bearing positioned on top of the lower hydrostatic bearing, the lower touchdown ball bearing supporting the turbine shaft during standstill conditions and when the rotation speed is less than the rotation threshold, the lower hydrostatic bearing supporting the turbine shaft when the rotation speed is greater than the rotation threshold; and a lower feed line extracting the fluid from the main circuit and feeding the pressurized fluid to the lower hydrostatic bearing.