Study on Load Capacity and Dynamic Characteristics of the Wave Bearing at Infinite Compressibility Number

Abstract

The wave bearing developed by Dimofte in the 1990’s features a continuous wave profile and presents numerous advantages compared to plain journal bearings. One of the main advantages of the wave bearing is that it has a higher degree of stability than the plain journal bearing and this load capacity is close to the load capacity of the plain journal bearing. Predicting these coefficients for the wave bearing with high bearing numbers is difficult, although there are many studies on the aerodynamic bearing. This paper presents an analytical method for calculating the limiting values of load capacity, dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of the wave bearing for compressible fluids by simplifying the compressible Reynolds equation at high journal operation speed. A computational method is submitted which is derived from simple algebraic equations combined with infinitesimal perturbation method. The limiting characters of the wave bearing are compared with the plain journal bearing for all eccentricity ratios. Special emphasis is placed on investigating the effects of wave number, wave eccentricity ratio and wave starting angle on the limiting characteristics. Numerical results obtained indicate that the load capacity and stiffness of the wave bearing is better than the plain journal bearing at the same eccentricity ratio.