Abstract
Design of the restrictors of a hydrostatic thrust bearing maximizing bearing stiffness is considered in the paper. In particular, the paper focuses on a design of restrictors used in the opposed pad hydrostatic thrust bearings sustaining vertical loads. In such cases the table supported by the bearing moves from its neutral position. Numerical analysis indicates that an achievable highest stiffness for various bearing positions can be represented by an envelope curve derived. Using proposed design procedure, the bearing stiffness of our water hydrostatic thrust bearing becomes 1.5 times of that of the previous design at given operational condition.
