COMPARISON OF TWO TYPES OF RAYLEIGH'S
AERODYNAMICAL BEARINGS.
CALCULCATION WITH A FINITE ELEMENT METHOD.

 

Laurent GUlRAUD* - Pascal HERNANDEZ** - René BOUDET***
* Ingénieur de Recherche C.N.R.S.
B.P.4347 29, rue Jeanne Marvig
F-31055 TOULOUSE Cedex
** Maître assistant Ecole des Mines d'Ales
6 Avenue de la Clavière
F-30319 ALES Cedex
*** Professeur Université Paul Sabatier
118 Route de Narbonne 3PN Dept Mécanique
F - 31062 TOULOUSE Cedex
Laboratoire de Génie Mécanique de Toulouse - INSA de Toulouse
Complexe Scientifique de Rangueil - 31077 Toulouse - France
 

SUMMARY. Rayleigh bearings are used in mechanism to realize a load capacity due to the gazeous fluid film. The aim of this paper is to present a geometric and kinematic model of the bearing, introducing dimensional parameters to study their influence on of the bearing characteristics.
Mechanics of thin viscous films is used to modelize the behaviour of the gazeous film which is created at the interface. Utilization of the finite element method in such a problem is introduced as well as description of Hermite's elements and the calculation method
A visualization of the pressure field within the bearing is done, so as to evaluate the influence of the parameters on behaviour of the gas at the interface. The influence of the step (position and dimension), on the load capacity and on the mass flow through the bearing is described.
This model yields to an optimal geometry for design application.