Title: Effect of cone angle and length of the slot on the performance of feed slot conical air bearing

Authors: S.T. Chavan, B.B. Ahuja

Addresses: College of Engineering, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune – Satara Road, Dhankawadi, Pune 410 043, Maharashtra, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, Govt. College of Engineering, Shivajinagar, Pune 411005, Maharashtra, India

Abstract: Externally-pressurised conical air bearings can carry axial as well as radial loads. It is advantageous to develop conical bearing system because of its simple shape, easy fabrication, small space requirement and adjustment of clearances in the assembly. These bearings have been studied for orifice feeding of air which causes dispersion losses resulting in reduced load capacity. Feed slot configuration approximates to a line source and gives good distribution of fluid pressure and reduces the dispersion losses. Various characteristics like load capacities and stiffnesses of an externally pressurised conical air bearing with a feed slot are investigated in this paper. These characteristics are studied to obtain the effect of cone angle and length of the slot on the performance of these bearings.

Keywords: externally-pressurised air bearings; conical air bearings; cone angle; feed slot; slot length; load capacity; stiffness; mechanical design; design engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDE.2009.028653

International Journal of Design Engineering, 2009 Vol.2 No.2, pp.224 - 237

Published online: 21 Sep 2009 *

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