Externally Pressurized Thrust Oil Bearing with Porous Material : On the Bearing with Land Surface

Abstract

As a working medium of the externally pressurized porous bearing, air is generally used. The reason why liquid is not adopted is due to the high flow resistance of usual porous materials for the bearing. Lately, a new porous metal made by pressure casting has been developed. This material has the advantage that flow resistance can be controlled by varying pore size and porosity. Furthermore, pores are not crushed by machining. Hence, it is intended to utilize this material for the externally pressurized oil bearing. The bearing performance is analyzed against a thrust bearing with land surface assuming one-dimensional Darcy's flow in the porous structure. The experimental results of pressure distribution on the bearing surface and load capacity coincide well with calculated values. This porous bearing can replace equivalent capillary resistor bearings.