Rotation effects on hybrid air journal bearings

Rotation effects of hybrid air journal bearings with multi-arrays of orifice feedings are investigated numerically. Porous air bearings are also solved for comparison. The results show that bearing load capacity W increases faster with eccentricity ratio epsilon than with rotation speed, i.e. bearing number Be. There are optimum orifice diameters, i.e. optimum feeding parameters lambda(o,) which give maximum load capacity W for orifice feeding; but for porous feeding, load capacity W increases with feeding parameters lambda(p), It was found that the load capacity increases with feeding arrays of orifices and five rows of orifice feedings can approximate the operations of porous bearings very well. It was also found that load capacity W does not increase further when air supply pressure exceeds 5 atm because there is a critical pressure ratio through orifice (e.g. (P-o/P-s) < 0.53). (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.