Study on micro-vibration mechanism and flow characteristics of aerostatic bearings based on proper orthogonal decomposition

The unsteady flow field in the aerostatic bearing always induces micro-vibrations, which are severely detrimental to the stability and precision of the bearing. Extensive research has been conducted on the mechanism of micro-vibration, but a consensus has not yet been reached. To this end, the large eddy simulation (LES) and proper orthogonal decomposition methods were employed to analyze the flow field of an annular aerostatic bearing in this paper. A mechanism for inducing micro-vibration and the identification of a novel flow behavior were ultimately revealed. First, the accuracy of our LES method has been validated through quantitative comparison with experimental data. Then, the mode decomposition has been conducted to analyze the flow field under various gas supply pressures. The results demonstrate that when the supply pressure Ps = 0.4 MPa, the micro-vibration is dominated by a pair of adjacent large-scale vortices with low frequencies in the recess. However, when Ps = 0.5 and 0.6 MPa, the convection and shearing processes near the orifice outlet and the rectangular recess inlet become intense, resulting in the displacement of large-scale vortices. Eventually, the small-scale high-frequency pressure fluctuation structures have been also observed, which are closely related to the convection process within recess. With the increase in gas supply pressure, the high-frequency pressure fluctuations at the circular recess outlet gradually diminish, while those at the orifice outlet emerge and gradually enlarge. Meanwhile, the mode dominant frequency is transferred from around 200 kHz to around 1000 kHz. The energy fraction of the high-frequency pressure fluctuations is also greatly increased.