Integral transform solution for the analysis of hydrodynamic lubrication of thrust bearings

Purpose - The aim of this paper is related to an analysis of hydrodynamic lubrication of circular thrust bearings. Design/methodology/approach - The modified Reynolds equation was treated to obtain a hybrid numerical-analytical solution through the generalized integral transform technique (GITT) for the problem. Findings - Numerical results for the engineering parameters such as pressure field, load capacity and power consumption were thus produced as functions of the radial and circumferential directions. These parameters depend on the geometry of sector-shaped used: Rayleigh pad with 4, 8 and 16 steps. Comparing among them, on the numerical point of view, the Rayleigh pad geometry with N = 16 steps has a better satisfactory performance because it has a lower power consumption. Originality/value - The present GITT results and those obtained by the finite volume method (FVM) from previous works in the literature were confronted to verify whether the results are consistent and to demonstrate the capacity of the GITT approach in handling thrust bearing problems.