The Vane Bearing—A Self-Pressurizing Journal Bearing

Abstract

If the shaft of a journal bearing could be made to have a number of pressure sources which travel with the shaft, the load capacity of the oil film could be greatly enhanced. This paper describes the development of a concept in which the pressure sources arise from a positive displacement effect due to the eccentricity of the shaft within the bearing. The configuration has similarities to the rotor of a vane pump in which the entry port is open and the exit port closed. The bearing could be described as a hybrid hydrodynamic-hydrostatic bearing where the hydrostatic supply is self-contained and self-generated.

A number of methods of causing this self-pressurization are discussed. A theoretical analysis shows that load (or Sommerfeld) number improvement factors in the range 3–10 are quite feasible at the expense of an increased flow and power requirement.