The purpose of this paper is to present a novel numerical approach to analyze the static performance of aerostatic thrust bearings by adopting a general finite element method calculation program.
The characteristics of a gas film are described by the Reynolds equation and the pressure distribution is solved using the finite element method. A root iterative method is proposed to meet the requirement of the mass-conservation law because multiple pocketed orifice-type restrictors are treated as a series of special boundary conditions.
The static performance of a rotary table using aerostatic thrust bearings, including load carrying capacity and stiffness, can be predicted by the method; moreover, it can be further confirmed through experiments on the designed rotary table.
The method combining the finite element and root iterative methods is highly accurate and has a low time-cost for analyzing aerostatic thrust bearings with multiple pocketed orifice-type restrictors.
