Title: Studies on the evolution of shock wave in gas film clearance for aerostatic thrust bearing

Authors: Shang-Han Gao; Sheng-Long Nong; Wu-Bin Xu

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Transportation Engineering, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou, Guangxi 545006, China ' Lushan College of Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou, Guangxi 545616, China ' School of Mechanical and Transportation Engineering, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou, Guangxi 545006, China

Abstract: This paper researches the evolutions of shock waves in the gas film of aerostatic thrust bearing with a single air supply inlet. The ANSYS Fluent 18.0^® is adopted to discuss the flow field characteristics, such as, supersonic flow, negative pressure, load capacity of bearing and backflow area with large values of both gas film thickness and supply pressure. Under thick clearance and large supply pressure conditions, the supersonic flow leads to the appearance of shock wave and causes a negative pressure. If the multi-reflection phenomenon of shock wave occurs, the total load capacity of bearing will even drop to be negative. The above results provide a theoretical basis for people to understand the flow field characteristics of the gas film in the aerostatic thrust bearing under large gas film thickness and large supply pressure conditions, and help the researchers to find out the effective way to restrain the emergence of shock waves and improve the load capacity of aerostatic thrust bearings.

Keywords: aerostatic thrust bearing; flow field characteristics; shock wave; load capacity.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2020.108519

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2020 Vol.20 No.4, pp.209 - 221

Accepted: 01 Nov 2019
Published online: 15 Jul 2020 *

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