Effect of micro-pit arrangement on the behavior of gas parallel slider bearings

Surface texturing is helpful in decreasing the friction, decreasing the wear, and increasing the fluid film stiffness. This investigation studies the influence of micro-pit arrangement on the behavior of gas parallel slider bearings (GPSB) by employing the multi-grid finite element method using the Matlab software. The pressure distribution of GPSB with micro-pits was investigated. The results showed that the position offset ratio of micro-pits had negligible effect on the maximum pressure and minimum pressure of GPSB with micro-pits. Meanwhile, the effect of the geometrical parameters of micro-pits on the average pressure of GPSB was investigated for different position offset ratios. Geometrical parameters of micro-pits included depth of micro-pits, radius of micro-pits, transversal spacing, longitudinal boundary distance, and longitudinal spacing. It was found that both depth and radius of micro-pits corresponding to maximized average pressure were controlled by the position offset ratio of micro-pits. The findings of this paper imply that the optimized micro-pit arrangement could improve the hydrodynamic pressure of gas parallel slider bearings.