Static characteristics of a rectangular hydrostatic thrust bearing with a self-controlled restrictor employing a floating disk

This paper proposes a new type of a self-controlled restrictor which can achieve a very high bearing stiffness in hydrostatic bearings. This self-controlled restrictor employs a floating disk to control the mass flow rate of the oil entering the bearing clearance according to changes of the applied load. Furthermore, a hydrostatic bearing with this restrictor can theoretically achieve an infinite stiffness when the mass of a floating disk is assumed to be zero. The static characteristics of a rectangular hydrostatic thrust bearing with this self-controlled restrictor are theoretically and experimentally investigated. It was consequently shown that the proposed hydrostatic thrust bearing can achieve a very high stiffness (nearly infinite stiffness) in a very wide range of applied load independent of supply pressure.