A theoretical and experimental

study into the steady-state

performance characteristics of
industrial air lubricated thrust
bearings
D.A. Boffey*, M. Waddell** and J. K. Deardent

The effect of pocket length on the steady-state performance characteristics

of a single orifice industrial aerostatic bearing has been studied experi-
mentally. For a given air gap the pocket length is found to have an important
influence on stiffness. A further theoretical and experimental study of the
performance of the twin orifice version of the bearing has been made. Load
capacity and film stiffness are found to improve at the expense of flowrate.
There is considered to be satisfactory agreement between predicted and
observed performance.

Keywords: bearings + gas lubricants, pocket length, single orifice, twin orifice

This study completes a trio of investigations concerned and pockets as shown in Figs l(a) and (b). The single orifice
with the steady-state performance characteristics of bearing had a 250/am diameter orifice, feeding into a hole
externally pressurized air lubricated thrust bearings in the of diameter 4.5 mm and pocket 1 mm wide x 39/am deep.
x, y and z displacements of a Ferranti coordinate measuring The overall length of the pocket was varied between 30 and
machine (CMM).The first of the investigations I was con- 70 mm as indicated in Fig l(a). The twin orifice bearing
cerned primarily with the effect of restrictor size on film had orifices each of 250/am diameter and the overall length
stiffness in the y displacement and the second ~ , with the of the pockets was fixed at 20 ram.
effect of pocket depth on film stiffness in the z displace-
ment. The current paper deals with two topics:
(1) An experimental investigation of the effect of varying
pocket length on the performance of a single orifice bearing
90 1
(2) A theoretical and experimental investigation of the
I
performance of a standard twin orifice bearing
The single orifice bearing was originally employed as the 45
standard in the x displacement of the CMM later to be
superceded by the twin orifice design. The purpose of I I i f I
part 1 of the investigation was to see if the film stiffness
of the single orifice bearing with extended pocket could I so ! i I
match that of the present standard twin orifice bearing at
!= 50
the design air gap of 10/am and pressure of 4.5 bar (gauge).
In the CMM the bearings operate in pairs, so that angular
film stiffness is not important. Part 2 of the investigation
70
4
was to see how closely the experimental performance of
the standard twin orifice bearing could be predicted
theoretically; close agreement would encourage future ._ 90 L
theoretical studies prior to manufacture and test. Ref 3 is
recommended as a reference on fluid film bearings. -1 C -

Apparatu s
Bearing geometry
The two bearings tested were each 90'x 30 mm, one with a
single orifice and pocket and the other with a twin orifice
*Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh EH8 9YL, UK
**kbrrnerly of University of Edinburgh; now at Property Services
Agency, Civil Service, Edinburgh, UK Fig l (a) Single and," ( b ) twin orifice bearing geometries.
tFerranti Ltd., Dalkeith, Midlothian, UK All dimensions in m m

TRIBOLOGY international 0301-679X/85/040229-05 $03.00 © 1985 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd 229
 Boffey, Waddell and Dearden - air lubricated thrust bearings

Test rig
The test rig is very similar to that reported in Ref 2.
A schematic of the arrangement is shown in Fig 2. The only
differences are the probe mounts, which cater for the
I
different test bearing dimensions, and a micrometer system
which prevents rotation of the bearing spindle and probe II I

,!'1I
plates. Variations in air gap were detected due to the probe
plate (fixed to the test bearing) not being quite parallel to
the base plate of the rig.
0 5 0 mm
[__J
Instrumentation
I
The pressurized air supply to the test bearing and load
spindle is controlled by precision regulators fitted with
pressure gauges. The air-flow to the bearing is measured
using a 'Gapmeter' flow measuring system. A Wayne Kerr Fig 2 Schematic of test rig
TE 200 capacitance type measuring system is used to give
a direct reading of air gap from probes mounted at two where p is the film pressure and x and y are perpendicular
diagonally opposite corners of the test bearing. In this coordinates in the plane of the film.
industrial application the bearings have a supply pressure
of 4.48 bar (65 psig) and an air gap of 10/am (0.004 in). The volumetric flow (G) into the bearing through an
orifice restrictor is governed by either the unchoked or
choked equations respectively:
Test procedure
G- Cdrra2Ps Pi 2/7 T
Single orifice bearing x/(RT) {2(Ps) (-~)
The purpose of the tests was to obtain cures of load versus Pi (7-1)/7 1/2
air gap and volumetric air flow versus air gap. Initially, they [1-(~s) l}
were carried out for the bearing with no pocket at supply
pressures of 3, 4 and 5 bar gauge. The same bearing then Cdrra2Ps Pi 217 3'
had an overall pocket length of 30 mm inserted and was
tested at the same three pressures. The procedure was
G- ~/(Rn {2(~s)er (-~-ST)
repeated for overall pocket lengths of 50 and 70 ram. Pi 7-1/7 1/2
[,. -(.)~, ] }
Load was increased by adding masses to the load pan. At Ps
each load the test bearing was first vented to atmosphere in which:
and the Wayne Kerr measuring system set to zero to ensure
Ps Supply pressure
no warping of the test rig. At each load the air gap was
taken to be the average of the two probe readings. Pi Pressure in pocket
3" Ratio of specific heat capacities
The volumetric flow readings were taken at each of the
R Universal gas constant
above points and corrected to allow for the absolute
supply pressure. T Absolute temperature
a Orifice radius
Twin orifice bearing Cd Orifice discharge coefficient
The test procedure was identical to that for the single (Pi/Ps)cr Critical pressure ratio
orifice bearing except that the bearing pocket remained The volumetric flow/unit length from the pocket into the
fixed at 20 ram. bearing film is governed by the Poiseuille equation:
1 dp
Theory G/unit length = - - h3
12/2 dx
Stiffness curves
in which:
To obtain a curve of film stiffness versus air gap it is
necessary to differentiate the load versus air gap curve. /J Coefficient of viscosity
This was achieved using the Edinburgh Regional Comput- h Air gap
ing Centre program 'Curvefit'.4 The procedure adopted The field equation and the flow equations are sufficient
was identical to that outlined in Ref 2 and a polynomial to predict the steady-state performance of an aerostatic
of degree five was employed throughout. bearing in the manner described below.
Basic equations Solution
For a compressible isothermal film of constant thickness, The field equation was solved by the relaxation method. 6
Reynolds equation for an aerostatic bearing s reduces to: Due to the symmetry of the twin orifice bearing it was
~2p2 ~2p2 only necessary to analyse one quarter of the bearing surface.
--+ -0 The resulting 45 x 15 mm portion of the bearing was
0x 2 0y 2
divided into a 30 x 10 mesh and, with the exception of
which is the well known Laplace field equation in p2, the pocket, all grid points were initially set to zero pressure

230 August 85 Vol 18 No 4

 Boffey, Waddell and Dearden - air lubricated thrust bearings

The derived family of stiffness versus air gap curves is

presented in Fig 4, which shows that maximum stiffness
increases with increase in pocket length. At the same time
there is a distinct reduction in optimum air gap. The some-
what irregular behaviour in load capacity at the design air
gap of 10 pm is not reflected in the stiffness results. For an
overall pocket length of 50 mm the stiffness peaks at
40- ~~a • No pocket
33 MN/m, with an optimum air gap very close to the design
\\ o 5 0 mm pocket value. At the same air gap the stiffness of the bearing with
~x 50 mm pocket an overall pocket length of 70 mm is 35 MN/m.
a 70 mm pocket
The corresponding curves of volumetric flowrate versus air
gap are shown in Fig 5. At the design air gap of 10/Ira the
bearing is operating in the unchoked region for all pocket
50

d
8
E
\
2o
40 \ ~ - ~ No pocket

\
t
50 mm pocket
-~-- 50 mm pocket
..... 70 mrn pocket

o
E
z

0
0
r I
I0
, " ~ ' 1 ~ ~ ~ 1

Air gap, ~m
20 50
~
03
.o //
Fig 3 Added mass versus air gap for various lengths; single
orifice bearing; Ps = 4 bar (gauge)
\\\
The relaxation procedure on the Apple microcomputer was
performed for 500 iterations, at which point the pressure o !I/
profile had effectively converged. When this situation was
reached the pressure was integrated over the bearing surface
to yield load capacity. The pressure profile also yielded the
/I //" ,
pressure gradients along the pocket/film interface (dp/dx).
The fixing of the supply pressure determined which orifice \
equation to use and the corresponding air gap (h) was 0 J I , r i I
determined by equating flows from the supply into the o IO 20 5O
bearing and from the pocket into the film. Air gap, Fm
Fig 4 Stiffness versus air gap for various pocket lengths;
Stiffness curves were obtained in the manner previously single orifice bearing; Ps = 4 bar (gauge)
referred to. In the derivation of the theoretical curves a
discharge coefficient (Cd) of 0.625 was used. This was 2000
based on information provided in Ref 7. (It has subse-
quently been pointed out to the authors that for a com- ._=
pressible fluid Cd may be in the range 0.7-0.8).

Results and discussion E IOOO

o
Effect of varying pocket length in the single orifice bearing f / / / n 70 mm pocket

Fig 3 shows plots of load versus air gap without a pocket

and for overall pocket lengths of 30, 50 and 70 mm at a
supply pressure of 4 bar gauge. It shows that there is an
increase in maximum load capacity as overall pocket length , I , I , I ,
I0 20 50
is increased, although at the design air gap of 10/~m, the
load capacity with an overall pocket length of 50 mm is of
the order of 50 per cent higher than that with an overall Fig 5 Airflow versus, air gap for various pocket lengths,"
length of 70 mm. single orifice bearing," Ps = 4 bar {gauge)

TR IBOLOGY international 231

 Boffey, Waddell and Dearden - air lubricated thrust bearings

\ Conclusions
Increasing pocket length in the single orifice bearing
Experimental
increases maximum load capacity, although there is some
Theoretical irregularity in load capacity at the design air gap. Maximum
50 ~ film stiffness also increases with increase in pocket length
but the optimum air gap falls at the same time.
Load capacity and film stiffness of the twin orifice bearing
4O are some 25 per cent higher than those of the single orifice
bearing at the design air gap and supply pressure. However,
this superior performance is at the expense of a doubling
in air flow rate.
30 I
There is satisfactory agreement between the predicted and
observed performance characteristics of the twin orifice
bearing which would justify the use of theoretical studies
20
in the future.

ot
0 I L
ib,\

I "T ~ 8 " - I
40-

I
I
I
/'-"X
\
\
\
--m- Experimental
Theoretical

0 I0 20
Air
30

gap, p.m
40 50
/ #h\
30 ! \
Fig 6 A d d e d mass versus air gap," comparison o f theory and
I \
experiment," twin orifice bearing," Ps = 4 bar (gauge)
/
lengths and the effect of pocket length is to increase E
flowrate. z

o)
/
For supply pressures of 3 and 5 bar (gauge) the performance 20
characteristics are qualitatively similar to those already
described;maximum load capacity, film stiffness and flow
rate all increase with increase in supply pressure.
At no time was the bearing found to exhibit pneumatic
hammer instability. \
10
X
Comparison of theory and experiment in the twin \
orifice bearing \

In Fig 6 a comparison is made between theory and experi-

ment of load versus air gap with the supply pressure set at
4 bar (gauge). A similar comparison of film stiffness versus I
air gap is made in Fig 7. Both results are considered to be 0 10 20 3o
satisfactory and to justify the use of theoretical studies Air gap, p.m
prior to manufacture. The maximum experimental film
stiffness of 41 MN/m is seen to occur very close to the Fig 7 Stiffness versus air gap," comparison o f theory and
design air gap of 10/am. experiment; twin orifice bearing; Ps = 4 bar (gauge)

In Fig 8 a comparison of airflows to the bearing is made 6000

with the supply pressure set at 4 bar (gauge). The agree-
ment here is within 15 per cent which is improved if a
higher value of discharge coefficient is assigned. ~
.c_
f
0--
4000
E
Comparison of single and twin orifice bearings ~Eo
A comparison of the experimental load capacities in Figs 3 ,g m - - ~ Experimental
and 6 at the design air gap of 10 #m shows that the twin .=- 2000 Theoretical
orifice bearing has a capacity 25 per cent greater than the
single orifice bearing with an overall pocket length of
50 ram. This is accompanied by a similar increase in film
I , I , I
stiffness at the same air gap as evidenced by a comparison o~ io 20 30 40
of Figs 4 and 7. However, the superior load capacity and
Air gap, p.m
film stiffness of the twin orifice bearing is at the expense of
a two-fold increase in volumetric flow at the design air gap Fig 8 Airflow versus air gap; comparison o f theory and
(compare Figs 5 and 8). experiment," twin orifice bearing," Ps = 4 bar (gauge)

232 August 85 Vol 18 No 4


References
1. Boffey D.A., Duncan A.E. and Deaxden J.K. An experimental
investigation of the effect of orifice restrictor size on the
stiffness of an industrial air lubricated thrust bearing. Tribology
International, 1981,14(5), 287.
2. Boffey D.A., Barrow A.A. and Deaxden J.K. An experimental
investigation into the performance of an aerostatic thrust
bearing. Tribology International, 1985, 18(2)
3. Gross W.A. et al. Fluid film lubrication. Wiley-Interscience,
1980, New York & Chichester
TRIBOLOGY international
Boffey, Waddell and Dearden - air lubricated thrust bearings
4. Mooljee N.K. Curvefit on EMAS 2900, User Note 11.
Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre, January 1983
5. Design of gas bearings vol. 1, Mechanical Technology Inc.,
Latham, New York, 1969
6. Trumpler P.R. Design of film bearing. Collier Macmillan Ltd,
London, 1966
7. Massey B.S. Mechanics of fluids. 4th Edn, Van Nostrand
Reinhold, 1979
233