The status of gas-lubricated bearings

The idea of gas-lubricated bearings was suggested as far back as 1854 by Hirn, but it is only very recently that they have aroused a great amount of interest. The interest is centered on the advantages of gas-bearings for the following major applications: High temperature lubrication where ordinary liquid or grease lubrication fails. Bearings operating in radio-active atmospheres where conventional lubrication may break down. Applications sensitive to contamination where fouling from lubricating oil becomes serious. Low-friction devices--an especially important advantage because of the trend to high speed machinery. Applications where positional accuracies down to micro-inches are required. As a result of the increasing interest, many people are working in this field and gas bearings have been used for a variety of purposes, both in the laboratory and in industry on a small scale. There is a definite lack of published information relating to their systematic design. It is possible to design a gas bearing for a particular purpose and to make it function satisfactorily, but it is often difficult to achieve the optimum design from the standpoint of maximum load, minimum friction, economic gas flow and maximum stability. It is the purpose of this thesis to collect all possible literature with a view of finding out what has been done up to this time, so that further theoretical and experimental investigations may be carried out with a view of formulating a complete theory for the design and operation of gas bearings in par with the liquid and grease lubricated bearings. The subject has been divided into two main parts, because the basic principles underlying the two are quite different: Hydrodynamic or Self-acting Bearings. Hydrostatic or Pressurized Bearings. In each part an attempt has been made to cover the following topics: Basic Theory. Experimental Results and Their Comparison with Theoretical Predictions. Stability. Effects of Various Parameters on the Performance. Some Practical Aspects --Introduction, pages 9-10