3D Numerical investigation of pressure field of an orifice compensated hydrostatic bearing

In recent years, much attention has been given to hydrostatic/hybrid journal bearings in research due to their wide spread engineering applications, such as: high speed turbomachinery, machine tools spindles, cryogenic equipment, and precision grinding. However, the activity toward improved understanding of the flow regimes and the associated pressure pattern in the recess flow phenomena is still needed. The objective of this work is to provide an understanding of the influence of regime flow in recess on the pressure field of hydrostatic bearing flat pad fed by orifice restrictor and orifice inertia. 3D Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes equations with the SST-k omega turbulence model are applied in order to investigate the effects of pressure supply, dynamic viscosity and recess depths on the pressure profile. The finite volume method implemented in the ANSYS-CFX software is used. To prove the robustness of CFD code, a comparison of the numerical results and the Reynolds equation is performed at very deep recess. The results exhibit very good agreements between CFD and Reynolds equation methods. On the other hand, the several cases treated in this work contribute also to analyze and to explain the main reasons providing the inertia and the Rayleigh effect in recess flow.