Step Response Characteristics of Hydrostatic Journal Bearings With Self-Controlled Restrictors Employing a Floating Disk

Abstract

This paper describes the step response characteristics of hydrostatic journal bearings with self-controlled restrictors employing a floating disk. This type of bearing can achieve very high static stiffness by controlling the mass flow rate of the fluid entering the bearing clearance using a floating disk. Many design parameters such as supply pressure, viscosity, the magnitude of the step load and the imposed static load affect the step response characteristics of the proposed bearing. Therefore, the influences of each design parameter on the step response characteristics are theoretically investigated in this paper. Furthermore, the theoretical results are compared with the experimental results in order to verify the theoretical predictions. It is subsequently found that the proposed bearing consistently shows a stable step response irrespective of the step-load direction.