In this report, the authors investigated theoretically and experimentally the inertia effects on the dynamic performance of externally pressurized gas-lubricated circular thrust bearings with a capillary restrictor in a turbulent regime. From the experiment, it is concluded that the effects of the inertia forces are considerable when the diameters of the capillary and the bearing clearance are large, and that the presented analysis yields good predictions of both the bearing stiffness and the damping coefficient.
