THE EFFECT OF CURVATURE ON THE LOAD CARRYING-CAPACITY IN ECCENTRIC GAS THRUST-BEARINGS

The load carrying capacity of sector-shaped gas thrust bearings is investigated for cases where the sector center of curvature and the center of rotation do not coincide. The solution accounts for the complete velocity field including radial components due to the bearing eccentricity. It abo accounts for slip conditions at the solid boundaries corresponding to high Knudsen numbers. For all the bearings investigated it was found that the optimum bearing orientation for maximum load capacity b when the minimum film thickness b uniform along the sector trailing edge. All bearings showed increasing load carrying capacity with decrease in their curvature. Maximum unit load b achieved for bearings with infinitely large radius of curvature i.e. a rectangular geometry. The improvement in load capacity obtained by using a rectangular geometry becomes more significant for wide bearings. In very narrow bearings the effect of curvature on load carrying capacity b negligible. © 1990 Taylor & Francis Ltd.