The Effect of Fluid Inertia on a Porous Thrust Plate—An Analytical Solution

Abstract

A theoretical analysis was made to study the effect of fluid inertia on a porous thrust plate. The most elementary configuration was chosen as an analytic model to investigate this effect with a minimum of mathematical complexities. Numerical data were obtained for an incompressible film. The results reveal that the effect of fluid inertia can be important, depending on the film thickness H and a parameter Ω . For small value of H the inertia effect is essentially confined to a very narrow region near the edge of the bearing while for large values of H this effect spreads throughout the fluid film. This pressure boundary layer at low H is similar to that in a self-acting gas bearing. In general it was found that inertia effects tend to influence favorably the flow and load capacity of porous thrust plates.