The dynamic behaviour of fluid bearings with grooved lands

In mechanical engineering, grooved mating lands are used for various reasons in a large number of bearing applications. This paper studies the effect of such grooves on the squeeze load characteristics, and hence on the damping capacity, of bearings. A comparison is given between the damping capacity of bearings with grooved lands and that of bearings with equivalent flat lands to give the same pressure flow characteristics. Different bearing configurations, representing thrust and journal applications, are analysed and discussed.