On the Laminar Flow Characteristics of Conical Bearings. Part II—Experimental Verification

Abstract

The laminar flow characteristics of the externally pressurized central recess conical bearings with narrow gaps, predicted theoretically in Part I of this paper, have been verified experimentally. Two main effects on the performance of conical bearings have been investigated, namely: the effect of nonconstant film thickness along the gap of the bearing and the effect of rotation. It was found that experimental pressure distributions and load capacity of the constant and divergent gap bearings were in close agreement with the theoretical data for the low rotational velocities however, with the increased rotation, the experimental values were higher than theoretically predicted. The experimental values of pressure, load capacity, and the torque of convergent gap bearings were found higher than theoretical.