Abstract: An application of the boundary element method (BEM) is presented
to calculate the behaviors of a spiral grooved thrust
bearing (SGTB). The basic reason is that the SGTB has very complex
boundary conditions that can hinder the effective or sufficient
applications of the finite difference method (FDM) and he finite
element method (FEM), despite some existing work based on the FDM
and the FEM. In order to apply the BEM, the pressure control
equation, i.e., Reyonolds 'equation, is first transformed into
Laplace's and Poisson's equations. Discretization of the SGTB
with a set of boundary elements is thus explained in
detail, which also includes the handling of boundary
conditions. The Archimedean SGTB is chosen as an example of the
application of BEM, and the relationship between the behaviors
and structure parameters of the bearing are found and discussed
through this calculation. The obtained results lay a solid
foundation for a further work of the design of the SGTB.
Key words: Pressure
control equation Boundary element method Spiral grooved thrust
bearing
*
This project
is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China. Manuscript received on
May 14, 1999; revised manuscript July 20, 1999
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