Characteristics of hydrostatic bearing/seal parts for water hydraulic pumps and motors. Part 1: Experiment and theory

In this paper, the load-carrying capacity, power losses and stiffness of disk-type hydrostatic thrust bearings including the case of eccentric loading are discussed theoretically. The numerical analysis method is established based on a two-dimensional elastohydrostatic problem with an elastic deformation model, which is extended to adapt it for a non-axisymmetric load acting on the thrust bearing. The bearing is made of a combination of stainless steel/stainless steel and stainless steel/plastics. For the elastic materials, the maximum stiffness derived from, i.e., minimum film thickness is, larger than that of the rigid material in the range of a large ratio of pocket pressure and a hydrostatic balance ratio of over unity, which is defined as the ratio of the load to the maximum hydrostatic load-carrying capacity. The maximum load-carrying capacity and minimum power loss can exist in the domain of the hydrostatic balance ratio over unity for the case of the bearing consisting of elastic/rigid materials, in comparison with that composed of the same rigid materials. For the case of water, the power loss due to leakage flow is slightly larger but that due to frictional torque is much smaller than that in the case of hydraulic oil. Then, the total power loss is much smaller than that of hydraulic oil.