A bi-directional rotating fluid bearing system

Abstract

Most fluid bearing systems with grooves on the journal/thrust bearing surfaces were designed to rotate in a specified direction and cannot be reversed. This feature of such fluid bearings limits their application range and hence, a bi-directional rotating fluid bearing system is proposed. The results of numerical simulation on the dynamic characteristics of such bearing system are presented and compared with those of one-directional rotating fluid-bearing system. It shows that for the same load capacity and stiffness requirement, the bi-directional rotating fluid bearing system has a higher power consumption than that of the one-directional counterpart. However, the bidirectional rotating fluid bearing system provides the freedom of rotating spindle motor in either direction and widens the application range of fluid bearing spindle motors.