Aerostatic porous annular thrust bearings as seals

Mikael Miettinen*, Valtteri Vainio, Raine Viitala

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Externally pressurized porous thrust bearings can be used for simultaneous sealing and bearing functions. Performance characterizing metrics of aerostatic seals include load capacity, stiffness, air consumption and leakage. Gas flow in porous aerostatic bearings and seals can be modeled using modified Reynolds equation, where a porous feeding term is included. In this paper, a non-dimensional analytical solution for the pressure distribution is proposed for annular thrust seals with assumption of one-dimensional restrictor flow. It is shown, that the analytic solution is equivalent to a numerical solution with two-dimensional restrictor flow on the most significant performance metrics under static conditions. The theoretical results are validated by experiments with two 64 mm diameter aerostatic graphite seals, demonstrating the accuracy of the proposed models.

Original languageEnglish
Article number110073
Number of pages10
JournalTribology International
Volume200
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2024
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Externally pressurized
  • Gas lubrication
  • Non-contact seal
  • Porous restrictor

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