Orifice-restricted hydrostatic thrust bearings are broadly employed in ultra-precision machine tools, aerospace industries, and so forth. The orifice length–diameter ratio (OLDR) is one of the significant geometrical parameters of the orifice-restricted hydrostatic thrust bearing, which directly affects the performance of the bearing. To accurately guide the design of the hydrostatic thrust bearing, the effect of the OLDR on the performance of the hydrostatic thrust bearing needs to be thoroughly and scientifically investigated, especially for ultra-precision machine tools. In this paper, the influences of various OLDRs are comprehensively studied using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach on the pressure pattern, velocity, turbulent intensity, and vortices, as well as the load capacity, stiffness, volume flow rate, and orifice flow resistance of the hydrostatic thrust bearing under identical operating conditions. The obtained results show that there are differences in performance behaviors of the hydrostatic thrust bearing caused by different OLDRs. Some new findings are obtained, particularly in the second-order small vortices which appear in the annular recesses with all OLDRs except that of 2, and the flow resistance does not always increase with increasing OLDRs. Finally, the proposed CFD approach is experimentally validated.

Hydrostatic thrust bearings are the core part of the hydrostatic spindle, which is widely used in high precision grinding machines. In this paper, the viscosity-temperature (v-t) characteristics of hydrostatic oil are systematically investigated, which is essential for improving the performance of the hydrostatic thrust bearing and the spindle working at high pressure and high rotational speed. Based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation developed, the performance variation rules of thrust bearing surface are established while changing the oil supply pressure. It is found that the bearing capacity and temperature are obviously affected by varying viscosity-temperature characteristics, which have significant fluctuation phenomenon at the orifice. Furthermore, the turbulence intensity of the taper hole is found the least factor by analyzing four kinds of commonly used orifice type configurations. Finally, comparing the simulation and experimental results, the v-t model developed is proofed well matching with the experiment. The model can provide a basis for accurate design and analysis of hydrostatic thrust bearings and consequently the effective design and analysis of the hydrostatic spindle for high precision grinding machine.

Hydrostatic bearing spindles are widely applied in high precision grinding and turning machines due to their good dynamic stability and rotational accuracy. However, under the condition of high-speed rotations, the heat generated by the friction of the oil film will cause the shear thinning effect. It not only reduces the rotation accuracy of the spindle but also reduces the service life of the spindle. The surface texture structure and configuration between the planes play the role of homogenizing oil film temperature and preventing the bearing surface wear caused by excessive concentration of temperature, which can change the relative motion from the inside of the oil film and thus improve the performance of the hydrostatic spindle more effectively. In this paper, the influence of the surface texture shape and height on the thrust bearing performance of the hydrostatic spindle is systematically investigated by comparative analysis. The CFD simulations are developed to analyze the computational results based on the theory of viscosity-temperature characteristics. The results show that when the height of the surface structure is 1 ~ 2 times the oil film thickness, the spindle bearing performance is the best. The average temperature in the bearing region is the lowest and the accuracy of the simulations was verified by experimental results.

Surface microtexturing has been widely used due to its good hydrophobic or drag reduction characteristics, and become an effective method to improve product performance and reduce energy consumption. This paper mainly discusses the improvement of microtextures on the dynamic pressure characteristics of hydrostatic bearings, and explores the effects of texture parameters on carrying capacity, macroscopic wall two-plane shear force, cavity area and other factors. In the oil film model calculation of the smooth wall surface of the radial hydrostatic bearing under the action of high speed and large external load, the oil film divergent wedge often has a negative pressure area, which is obviously not in line with the actual situation, so the cavitation effect needs to be considered. The CFD analysis method of the “gas-oil” two-phase flow model was carried out by using the mixture model to seek the optimal texture model scheme and thus to improve the load carrying capacity (LCC) and reduce the wall shear force. The effects of the texture area arrangement and geometric parameters on the lubrication characteristics were compared and analyzed. It is found that the carrying capacity of local texture is better than that of global texture, and different texture arrangements can achieve better drag reduction rates. The work presented in this paper studies the lubrication of the surface texture of a hydrostatic bearing. Taking the oil film carrying capacity and shear force as the target parameters, the factors, such as texture morphology, geometric parameters, texture distribution and cavitation phenomenon, are investigated through simulation and experimental methods. The surface textured hydrostatic bearing is expected to obtain the maximum oil film carrying capacity and the minimum friction resistance. The analysis results show that by arranging the partial streamwise texture at the rear end of the diverging wedge, the maximum shear force of the wall can be reduced by about 15%, and the LCC can be increased by about 18%.

The present study aims to predict the performance of hydrostatic journal bearings during steady-state operation through multiscale modelling and analysis. An innovative multiscale modelling approach is presented for numerical modelling and analysis of the hydrostatic journal bearing as configured and designed, particularly for the precision press machine. With the challenging environment for journal bearings under hydrostatic pressures and surface features, elastic modulus of oil and viscosity-temperature characteristics are often neglected while against heavy-loading and precision engineering requirement. This research takes into account of oil elastic modulus and viscosity-temperature characteristics to investigate the intrinsic relationship between the pressures within the hydrostatic bearing and its surface texture, feature size and locations being considered. This paper concludes with a further discussion on the potential and application of the approach in precision engineering.