The influence of groove types on air bearing properties

The surface of bearing is important to air bearing properties which may be damaged by machining process and particles wear. For optimization, the effect of four typical surface types and two arrangements on the pressure distribution and velocity in gas film have been investigated numerically. The load capacity is the objective functions. The numerical simulation results involving computational fluid dynamics (CFD) show that under the tested conditions, the orientation of grooves rather than different surface type has the most effect on load capacity. Moreover, the run-through grooves can decrease load capacity, but not run through grooves can improve load capacity compared with ideal surface.