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A Bi-Directional Gas Thrust Bearing

a

A. Lipschitz , P. Basu & R. P. Johnson

EG&G Sealol , Warwick, Rhode Island, 02888

Published online: 25 Mar 2008.

To cite this article: A. Lipschitz , P. Basu & R. P. Johnson (1991) A Bi-Directional Gas Thrust Bearing, Tribology Transactions,
34:1, 9-16, DOI: 10.1080/10402009108982003
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10402009108982003

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A Bi-Directional Gas Thrust Bearingo

A. LIPSCHITZ (Member, STLE), P. BASU and R. P. JOHNSON (Member, STLE)

Downloaded by [The University of Manchester Library] at 02:27 04 June 2014

EG&G Sealol
Warwick, Rhode Island 02888

A gas bearing with a bi-directiowl hydrodynamic geometry is

presented and anulyzed. The configuration con~ideredis a n equally
spaced set of a l l e m t i n g land and radial groove sectors, logether
forming a bearing suface.
The typical operating gap of the bearing is very small and a
predominant laminar vbcow flow field is assumed. The Reynoldc
equation is therefore used to describe the flow field. A parametric
sludy of the controlling equations shows that four dimensionless
geomelric parameters in conjunction with the bearing number fully
define the problem.
A simplified one-diman'onal and a more cm@kte huo-dimensional
steady-state analyses are peformed to optimiu: the governing parameters for muximum load canying capacily and maximum film
sliffness.

This study shows thul lhe performance prediclion capabilily of

the one-dimentiowl model is overly conserualive and not srllisfi~clory, but that iLs pammetric optima are i nfavorable agreement with
the two-dimensiotml alu~lysisresults
The load canying capucily of the bi-directional bearing is shown
lo be compamble to that of a Rayleigh slep or plain slider bearing.
This design offers the great advantage of independence of direction
of shaft rotution.
INTRODUCTION

Gas bearing applications require that the bearing be of

the film-riding type due to the poor lubricity of gas. This
would otherwise result in rapid wear and failure of the
bearing surfaces.
Hydrostatic gas bearings rely on an auxiliary system to
supply pressure to pocket regions in the bearing face, sufficient to provide a stable gas film under the operating load.
T h e advantage of these bearings is their independence of
speed and direction of rotation. However, the auxiliary sys-

Presented at the 45th Annual Meeting

In Denver, Colorado
May 7-10,1990
Final manuscript approved January 16, 1990

Ar

= aspect ratio, dimensionless

C n = curvature number, dimensionless

Cr
= clearance ratio, dimensionless
FBG = flat bottom groove
h
= gap (ni)
h,
= mininiuni gap (m)
h~
= ~iiaximumgap (m)
H
= gap, dimensionless
k
= film stiffness (Nlm)
K
= film stiffness, dimensionless
L
= load carrying capacity (N)
= load carrying capacity, dimensionless
Lc
Lr
= length ratio, dimensionless
p
= pressure (Pa)
P
= pressure, dimensionless
r
= radius (m)
r,
= mean radius (m)
Ar
= radial span (m)

= radius, dimensionless

RBG

round bottom groove

SunscRlrrs
u

= ambient

= groove

= internal

outside

GREEK
a

= angular sector length (Rad)

a,
8

= angular groove length (Rad)

= angular coordinate, normalized

= density ( ~ ~ l m ' )
= dynamic viscosity (Pa-sec)
= angular speed (Radlsec)

= compressibility or bearing number, dinlensionless

angular coordinate (Rad)

tcni complicates the design and is practical only if conditions

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of' high load and slow speed exist.

Hydrodynamic gas bearings rely on relative motion between the two bearing surfaces to provide load carrying
c;tp;tcity, n;t~nely,rot;ttion must coexist with bearing load
co~~tlitions
lor hyclrodynanlic bearings to be successful. Over
~ h years,
c
scvcral bearing face geometries have been studied
by v;trious researchers. These are slider, composite slider
( I ) , Kaylcigh stel) (2) and spiral groove ( 3 ) ,to name a few.
'I'l~csc I>c;~ringgeometries are uni-directional, i.e., they
I'unction only for one direction of rotation. Rotation in the
oppositc direction results in instabilities and eventual cont;tc~.'l'lie r;ttlial groove geometry is symmetrical and, as a
result, is inherently bi-rotational and easier to remanufacture. 'l'hcse arc significant features which make the radial
groove bearing very attractive for many applications.
111 this paper, a radial groove gas bearing design is presclltccl ant1 analyzed. 'l'lie configuration considered is an
cqit;~lly sl);tccd set of alternating land and radial groove
sectors, together brnling a bearing surface. T h e flow field
tl~rouglithe be;tring is assu~nedto be laminar and described
I>y the stc;~clyst;~tcReynolds equation. An interesting paper
by Sh:ipiro (4) describes how this equation is ubiquitously
i~scclin bearing and seal design. Effects which are neglected
I ~ c r csnch as ti~rbulencc,inertial effects in superlaminar
rcgimc, recirculating Ilow, centrifugal inertia, etc., are addrcssccl in (5)-(11).
NOII-clirncnsio~~;tlization
of the governing equation shows
t l ~ ; t t Ibur clirncnsionless geometric parameters in conjunction will1 the bearing number fully define the problem. A
sirnpliliccl one-climensional analysis and a more complete
two-climcnsio~ral analysis Elre performed to optimize the
governing parameters fbr maximum load carrying capacity
; ~ n dI I I ; I X ~ I ~ I L Ifill11
I~
s~iffncss.T h e load carrying capacity of
tllc I>i-clircctional bearing is found to be quite comparable
to tI1;tt of ;I Kaylcigh step o r plain slider bearing.

h,

-%

I L

STATOR

RBG
BEARING

ROTOR

FBG
BEARING

STATOR

Fig. 1-Radial

groove bearing.

sionless fashion so that their scaling is based on the characteristic bearing geometry and its ambient pressure.

R E -r - r ;

H s -h,

Ar '

ho

0
a

@=-,

P E P

pa

[31

Subst.itution into Eq. [2] and rearrangement yields the dimensionless ~arametrice ~ u a t i o nwhich controls the problem

ANALYSIS
'fhc ol?jectivc of' this analysis is to predict performance
the geonlctry of a bi-directional radial groove
g;~sI)c:tring which operates with small clearances in a preclomin;~ntlyviscous flow regime.
I:igi~rc I shows thc top and side views of such a bearing.
Figi~rcI (a) tlepicts a side view of a Round Bottom Groove
( K I K ) \>c;~ringand Fig. I(b) shows a side view of a Flat
I5otto1n C;roovc (FBG) bearing.
'I'hc coml>ressible Keynolcls equation which describes the
Ilow lielcl is
;111cl optimize

ao

= 6 p r

dBa (ph)

dr

$) + r a0 (y/L$)

(rjl/l,,,s

= 6pwr

(ph)

aspect ratio

[5]

curvature number

[6]

bearing or compressibility number

[7]

[I]

Assunling isothermal flow where p/p = const (a common

;~ssumption),Eq. [ I ] is rewritten as

where

121

'fhc i~~clcpcnclent
variables are now redefined in a dirnen-

Further, the profile of the Round Bottom Groove (RBG) is

approximated, Ref. (I)

A Bi-Directional Gas 'Thrust Bearing

A dimensionless clearance ratio and a length ratio are defined such that

Cr = h , l h , ~
Lr = a l / a

bearing clearance ratio

[9]

bearing length ratio

[lo]

1I

wide. Mass conservation requires that the same amount of

fluid mass be maintained between the surfaces at all times.
T h e case of n o relative motion between bearing surfaces
requires that the pressure is ambient everywhere. This specifies the second boundary condition.

T h e RBG bearing geometry then takes the following dimensionless form.

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T h e second condition takes the following dimensionless form

a n d the FBG bearing geometry is

Equation [4] is a dimensionless parametric equation which

describes the flow field within the bearing interface subject
to the groove geometry as given in Eq. [ l I] o r [12]. T h e
controlling parameters a r e four geometrical parameters Ar,
Cn, Cr and Lr and the fifth parameter is the bearing number A.

Equation [I41 is solved numerically by a simple "shooting

method" to satisfy the two conditions specified in Eqs. [15]
and [I 71 for the RBG bearing and the FBG bearing.
T h e load carrying capacity per unit width of the bearing
is defined

One-Dimensional Analysis
T h e primary objective for a simple 1-11 analysis is to develop an insight into the nature of the problem, rank the
performance of the RBG bearing and the FBG bearing on
a comparative basis and identify parametric optima.
I-D analysis implies a straight, infinitely long and infinitely wide bearing. Dimensionally speaking, r;>>Ar and
Ar>>rma must be satisfied. Parametrically, Cn+O and Ar-0
will result. Equation [4] is now reduced to a second order
one-dimensional differential equation

and in a dimensionless form

I his load carrying capacity LCis optimized as a function of

Cr and Lr which together with A completely specify the onedimensional problem.
7 7

which is the typical I-D isothernlal Reynolds equation in

cartesian coordinates.
Equation [I31 is integrated once and rearranged

Two-Dimensional Analysis
T h e two-dimensional bearing case considers finite radial
span which introduces curvature and aspect ratio effects.
Equation [4] is to be solved subject to the following boundary conditions.
Periodicity-equal pressure and pressure gradients at the
inlet and outlet of the bearing sector

where c is a constant of integration.

'1-wo Imundary conditions must be satisfit:d to solve Eq. [I 41.
Periodicity requires that the inlet pressure of the bearing is
equal to the outlet pressure of the bearing, namely

Ambient pressure at the inner and outer radial boundaries

In addition, no mass exchange may take place with the
surroundings since the I-D bearing is infinitely long and

Ganssb theorem is applied to the dimensional Eq. [I],

which is then solved via finite difference method, Ref. (12).
Dimensionless parameters are then extracted from the compi~lationalresults.
'I'he load carrying capacity, similar to Eq. [ l a ] for the I-D
case, is defined per sector as

By definition of the bearing number

an -- -2A
aCr

1
Cr(1- Cr)

hence, the final form of the dimensionless stiffness is

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; u ~ din dimensionless form

T h e film stiffness is optimized along with the load carrying

capacity. This allows the designer to select the best bearing
performance features as required.

DISCUSSION

'I'he load carrying capacity LC is optimized as a function

of Cr, Lr and Ar as the finite radial span renders Ar nonzero. Optimization with respect to Cn is not considered since
the design envelope dictates the curvature number and,
generally, the greater the bearing area, the greater the load
carrying capability. In the 2-D case, a non-zero net fluid
cxch;tnge will occur with the surroundings at the inner and
outer circun~ferentialboundaries during a transient from
;in initial operating condition to a final steady-state operating conclition. As an example, the resident fluid mass would
incre;isc upon increasing the rotational speed. Therefore,
resident fluid mass in the 2-D bearing case does not remain
constant, as in the I -D bearing case. However, net zero fluid
exchange continues to take place with the surroundings at
:my steady-state condition. This steady-state fluid exchange
provitles a cooling effect, a desirable feature of the radial
groove geometry.
In addition to the load carrying capacity, the bearing film
stiffness is just as an important feature to be optimized. T h e
film stiffness of the bearing sector for a given geometry and
set of boundary conditions is defined as

Normalizing k with respect to Y1paa(/; -r?)lh, yields the

dimensionless stiffness of one bearing sector

By definition of the clearance ratio

dCr
- - -1 Cr(1 -Cr)
dl,

h,

and in terms of partial derivatives the dimensionless stiffness is

Figures 2(a) and (b) present optimization plots of load

carrying capacity of the I-D RBG and FBG bearings as a
function of clearance ratio Cr. These plots clearly show that
Cr optima decrease with increasing compressibility number
A. This is indeed a very favorable behavior, since for a given
bearing geometry, a diminishing film gap will lower Cr,
hence resulting in higher values of load carrying capacity
which help avoid face contact.
Figures 3(a) and (b) depict the computed load carrying
capacity as a function of length ratio Lr. Each A case is
computed for its optimum Cr. Beneficially, the optimum
length ratio is practically independent of the bearing number and equals about 0.6 for RBG bearings and about 0.5
for FBG bearings. T h e curves are quite broad at the optima
of both cases, a desirable feature that makes the geometrical
control of this parameter non-critical.
T h e KBG bearing is found to be greatly superior to the
FBG bearing from a load capacity standpoint. T h e advantage of the RBG bearing over the FBG bearing becomes
greater as A increases.
Figures 4(a) and (b) display the longitudial clearance and
pressure profiles along the bearing sectors of the RBG and
FBG configurations. Note the significant expansion of the
gas at the inlet of the groove section to sub-ambient pressures. T h e subsequent compression which over-compensates
for this expansion results in the net load carrying capacity
of these bearings.
No additional analysis of the FBG bearing is attempted
since.the RBG bearing is found to be superior to the FBG
bearing.
Figure 5 displays load carrying capacity of a I-D RBG
bearing versus compressibility number for three different
clearance ratios. This plot suggests how a bearing will perform over a wide range of operating conditions.
T h e 2-D optimization plot of LC with respect to Cr, displayed in Fig. 6, shows a similar trend as in the onedimensional case. However, the magnitude of load carrying
capacity for the two-dimensional bearing is nearly 60 percent-70 percent greater than the one-dimensional bearing.
T h e discrepancy is due to the limiting second condition of

A Bi-Directional Gas Thrust Searing

LEGEND
0 - .\ = 10
A - .\ 5 50

0.50

Cr = 0.35
Cr = 0.25

LEGEND Lr = 0.6
0 - .\ = 10
A - .\ = 50

0.40

LC

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.O

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Cr
Fig. 2(a)-1-D

REG bearing load carrying capactly vs. clearance ratlo.

Fig. 3(a)--1-D REG bearing load carrying capaclty vs. length ratio.

LEGEND Lr = 0.5
0 - .\ = 10
A - .\ = 50
!3 - .\ = 100
X - .\ = 250

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

0.60
0.50

LEGEND

0 - .\

A 0
X

.\
.\
.\

= 10

Cr = 0.45
= 50 Cr = 0.30
= 100 Cr = 0.26
= 250 Cr = 0.20

1.O

Cr
Fig. 2(b)-1-D

FBG bearing load carrying capacity vs. clearance ratlo.

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Lr
the I-D case where no mass exchange with the ambient is
allowed. T h e 2-D case takes into account the radial influx
of gas near the groove inlet where the gas expansion takes
place. This effect gives rise to high average density in the
bearing and, therefore, results in load carrying capacity
higher than that of the I-D bearing.
In addition, the 2-D locus of clearance ratio optima is
very similar in pattern to the I-D cases, but is shifted to the
right (higher Cr). T h e two-dimensional curves are also much
broader, which is beneficial as high opening forces are retained a t off-optimum conditions.
T h e load carrying capacity as a function of length ratio
is shown in Fig. 7, in which each A case is computed for its
optimum Cr. Again, as in the one-dimensional case, the plot
is quite broad about the maximum. T h e optimum Lr is
approximately 0.5 for the two-dimensional case. T h e optimum Lr of 0.6 for the one-dimensional case previously
noted is in reasonable agreement. Significantly higher load
carrying capacities for the two-dimensional bearing are predicted, consistent with the radial influx of :mass during startup.
T h e relationship between dimensionless stiffness K as

Fig. 3(b)-1-D

FBG bearing load canylng capacity vs. length ratio.

computed from Eq. [31] and clearance ratio C r required

computation of the partial derivatives of LC with respect to
A and LC with respect to Cr. This relationship is shown in
Fig. 8. Similar to the load carryingcapacity, stiffness is maximized at comparable clearance ratios and exhibits a n equivalent dependency on A.
T h e optimum film stiffness with respect to the length
ratio is depicted in Fig. 9. Fortunately, this optimum agrees
well with the optimum for load carrying capacity and therefore, no design compromise is needed when optimum length
ratio is sought.
All bearing applications are two-dimensional in nature.
T h e radial span of a design envelope which defines the
aspect ratio and the curvature number are seldom under
the designer's control. T h e curvature number was found to
be an insignificant parameter for load carrying capacity by
comparing results for Cn ranging from 0.025 to 0.55.
T h e aspect ratio, however, is under the designer's control
and may be varied by changing the circumferential sector

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tkila include a combination o f data from Refs. ( I ) a n d (2)

ancl sonic additionally computed data points by the authors
ol' this p;tper. T h e conlparison plot demonstrates that the
perli)rniancc o f the radial groove bearing is very comparable lo slicicr and step bcarings, particularly a t optimum
clcarancc ratios a n d high compressibility numbers.

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CONCLUSIONS
I'crlbrn~:uncc ch;u-acteristics of' the bi-directional radial
groove gas bearing a r e prcsented.
'I'lic tlimensionlcss compressible Reynolds equation is
solvctl for a wick range of the controlling parameters. T h e s e
1~;~;1111e1er~o1isist
of the f o u r geometric parameters-Aspcct Katio Ar, Curv:tture Number Cn, Clearance Ratio C r
; I I I ~I,er~gtIi Katio Lr, and, the Gfth dynamic parameterC o ~ n l ~ e s s i b i l i toyr Hearing Number A.
I'aramctric optima a r e defined a n d performance evalua ~ i o ni l l cornl~arisonto Rayleigh Step a n d Inclined Slider
I3carings is shown.
I:or optimum bcaring performance the length Katio should
I)c sct at Yi, thc Clcarance Ratio at about % a n d the Aspect
K a ~ i oa t about 4.
.I .he ratlial groove bearing, which possesses the unique
c:tlxtbility of bi-directional operation, is found t o have per~'O~III;IIICC
Ic;11~1resconiparable to those of the unidirectional
bearings.

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(2) Grassam, N. S. and Powell, J. W..Gas L ~ a t e Hearings.

d
London Buttersworths, ( I 964).
(3) Gartlner, J. F.. "Recent Development on Non-Contacting Face Seals:'
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(9) Kennedy, J. S., e l al., "Thermal Effects in Externally Pressurized Conical Bearings with Variable Viscosity," Jour. of Trib.. 110. p p 201-21 I,
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0