A Self-Starting Hydrodynamic Gas Bearing

Abstract

An experimental self-starting hydrodynamic gas bearing was designed, built, and tested. This bearing operates on the principle that the bearing is started and stopped hydrostatically by means of an air supply which is generated by the bearing itself. For this purpose, a portion of the self-starting bearing is executed as a herringbone grooved bearing, which performs as a pump, charging a reservoir during hydrodynamic operation of the bearing. The reservoir air supply generated by the herringbone bearing is used for hydrostatic operation of the bearing during starts and stops. Starting and stopping of the experimental bearing was demonstrated using the air supply generated by the herringbone bearing. An equation was derived for the mass flow rate of the herringbone bearing pump.