Effect of cone angle and length of the slot on the performance of feed slot conical air bearing

Externally-pressurised conical air bearings can carry axial as well as radial loads. It is advantageous to develop conical bearing system because of its simple shape, easy fabrication, small space requirement and adjustment of clearances in the assembly. These bearings have been studied for orifice feeding of air which causes dispersion losses resulting in reduced load capacity. Feed slot configuration approximates to a line source and gives good distribution of fluid pressure and reduces the dispersion losses. Various characteristics like load capacities and stiffnesses of an externally pressurised conical air bearing with a feed slot are investigated in this paper. These characteristics are studied to obtain the effect of cone angle and length of the slot on the performance of these bearings.