Investigation of passive bearing in biomedical application

• Main Author: Xu, Henry GuanYu
• Other Authors: Chan Weng Kong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Fluid mechanics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/61573
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report explores on the different designs of a squeeze flow bearing. The load-carrying capacity of different bearing designs will be examined. The parameters of a Spiral Groove Bearing were optimized and used as a basis for comparison. Three different designs of squeeze flow bearing, Design Bearing_1, 2 and 3, were created to test the squeeze flow effects. Experiments on all bearings were tested at 4 different film thicknesses. Positive pressures were achieved at film thickness of 0.15mm. Optimum SGB and Design Bearing_1 met the target by displaying positive pressure at film thickness of 0.15mm. On the other hand, Design Bearing_2 showed negative pressure at all film thickness regardless of rotational speed. Despite Design Bearing_3 being slightly better than Design Bearing_2 by displaying positive pressure at lower rotational speeds, the performance was way below that of Optimum SGB and Design bearing_1. As such, a study was done in search for an explanation for the trends displayed by Design Bearing_2 and 3, which was suggested that it might be due to cavitation. Lastly, ranking on bearing was done to differentiate the performance in their load-carrying capacity.