Abstract
The article investigates pocket bearings with contoured profiles of exponential forms on both surfaces inside and outside of the step boundary forming hydro-dynamic action surfaces, and develops optimum design data yielding efficient slider bearings with small pockets with higher load capacities than conventional pocket bearings. In the case of a pocket bearings, in addition to the Reynolds equation used for the regions inside and outside the pocket, the continuity equation along the pocket boundary is satisfied to form the complete model of the bearing. The optimum design data includes dimensionless load-, flow-, temperature rise-, power loss-, stiffness-, and the coefficient of friction factors. Incompressible lubricant with temperature dependent viscosity is considered. Detailed study of conventional pocket bearings with planar surfaces is included. Some optimum exponential pocket bearings yield up to 561 percent increase in load capacity as compared to the conventional tapered bearings.
