A multi-pad compliant hydrodynamic fluid journal bearing includes three bearing modules spaced uniformly around a bearing sleeve. Each module includes a resilient supporting element formed in a corrugated pattern to provide spaced resilient support projections for an overlying bearing sheet having a bearing surface which faces the rotating shaft. One end of the sheet is welded to one end of the supporting element with an intervening spacer block having a recess in the center thereof. The other end of the bearing sheet includes a tongue which lies under the bearing sheet of the adjacent module within the recess of the spacer block of that module.
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