Existence of equilibria in articulated bearings

Abstract

The existence of equilibrium solutions for a lubricated system consisting of an articulated body sliding over a flat plate is considered. Though this configuration is very common (it corresponds to the popular tilting-pad thrust bearings), the existence problem has only been addressed in extremely simplified cases, such as planar sliders of infinite width. Our results show the existence of at least one equilibrium for a quite general class of (nonplanar) slider shapes. We also extend previous results concerning planar sliders.

Existence of equilibria in articulated bearings in presence of cavity

“…In [1] we proved the existence of at least a solution of (1.2)-(1.5) with θ < 0 in which case the variational inequality (1.2) becomes the Reynolds equation. The result proved in [1] says that for any F > 0 there exists a solution of (1.2)-(1.5) with θ < 0 provided that the articulation point x 0 is situated not far from the right end side (x = 1) of Ω.…”

“…The result proved in [1] says that for any F > 0 there exists a solution of (1.2)-(1.5) with θ < 0 provided that the articulation point x 0 is situated not far from the right end side (x = 1) of Ω.…”

“…This work is a continuation of a recent paper [1] treating the existence of equilibrium in a tilting-pad thrust bearings with cavitation effects disregarded.…”

“…The second degree of freedom is the tilt (or pitch) angle θ (see Fig. 1) (see [1] for more explanations on the physical model). In [1] we treated the case in which h, the non-dimensional distance between the surfaces, is non-increasing with x.…”

“…1) (see [1] for more explanations on the physical model). In [1] we treated the case in which h, the non-dimensional distance between the surfaces, is non-increasing with x. This guarantees positivity of the pressure, p, on all the domain Ω.…”