Effect of surface waviness on the static performance of aerostatic journal bearings

A numerical study of the effect of the bearing surface waviness on the performance of aerostatic journal bearings is presented. The finite difference method (FDM) and an iterative procedure are proposed to solve Reynolds equation and derive the air film pressure distribution. The calculated results indicate that the surface waviness can influence the bearing characteristics obviously. The effect of the wave's spatial wavelength on the bearing performance is not in order, whereas the effect of the waviness amplitude is ordinal. With the growth of the circumferential or axial waviness amplitude from 1.0µm to 3.0µm, the load capacity, stiffness and mass inflow rate can be decreased, whereas the circumferential or axial friction coefficient can be increased.