A non-central feeding hydrostatic thrust bearing

Abstract

In a conventional hydrostatic thrust bearing, the lubricant is supplied from the centre and flows radially outwards. It has been found that the load capacity of such a bearing decreases with increasing angular speed of the rotor. The bearing fails when a critical rotor speed is reached at which the load capacity becomes zero. In this paper a modified feeding system is suggested in which the lubricant is supplied from a ring-shaped groove situated between the exits at the centre and the edge of the bearing. Analysis shows that, by reversing the flow direction near the centre, the load capacity of a bearing of proper geometry can be made to decrease at a much slower rate than that of a conventional bearing as the rotor speed increases. The non-central feeding system might be considered for use in high-speed thrust bearings.