Open Form Pressure Balancing for Compliant Hydrostatic Thrust Bearings

Abstract

Traditionally hydrostatic slider bearings have rigid surfaces, and therefore require a well-defined and rigid counter surface with a constant or zero curvature. However, when the counter surface has a curvature varying along the path of the hydrostatic bearing, that hydrostatic bearing needs to follow that curvature. For this bearing compliance is required. This work introduces a new principle to increase the performance of compliant hydrostatic bearings by means of open form pressure balancing. A numerical example is provided to show the potential by comparing axi-symmetric parallel bearing performance of different geometries. Using thin-film assumption, the model is solved using an elasto-hydrostatic approach. The film height, pressure profile and load capacity are presented. This work provides the initial findings for pressure balanced parallel bearings.