An aerostatic thrust bearing with a stiffness of 1 N nm(-1)

This paper proposes a new type of aerostatic thrust bearing in order to achieve 10 times larger bearing stiffness compared with that of conventional aerostatic bearings. In this bearing, a porous restrictor with 1-3 mm diameter is employed instead of a conventional feed-hole restrictor to restrain gas flow entering the bearing clearance to a very small amount and the proposed bearing can operate in a bearing clearance of less than 1 mu m. The static characteristics of the proposed bearing are investigated theoretically and experimentally. it is consequently found that the proposed bearing can achieve a very high bearing stiffness of 1 N nm(-1).