The Effect of Texture Shape on the Load-Carrying Capacity of Gas-Lubricated Parallel Slider Bearings

摘要

Surface texturing is used to increase hydrodynamic pressure and reduce friction and wear between gaslubricated parallel sliding surfaces. The shape, geometry, and density of the patterned microtexture features ("dimples") play a key role in the tribological performance of the textured slider bearings. The objective of this paper is to compare the load-carrying capacity of commonly used dimple shapes for gas-lubricated textured parallel slider bearings. Six different texture shapes are considered, including spherical, ellipsoidal, circular, elliptical, triangular, and chevron-shaped dimples. The pressure distribution and load-carrying capacity generated by different texture shapes are simulated using the compressible Reynolds equation over a domain containing a column of ten dimples. The texture geometry and density are optimized in terms of maximum load-carrying capacity for each individual dimple shape, as a function of operating parameters such as relative velocity and spacing between the two sliding surfaces. The maximum load-carrying capacity of each individual texture shape-with optimized geometry and density-is then compared relative to each other. It is concluded that the ellipsoidal shape results in the highest load-carrying capacity, and the optimal geometry and density are found to be almost independent of the operating conditions.