Investigation of Water-Repellent Thrust Bearing

Abstract

In this study, the flat thrust bearing was developed by actively exploiting the slip flow generated on a water-repellent surface. In order to produce a load, bearing has a structure that generates pressure flow by using the discontinuity of the shear flow rate at the interface between a water-repellent surface that generates a slip flow and an untreated surface free from slip flow. This structure results in a completely flat bearing that has no geometrical variations in its surface level. Startup test and friction test on a water-repellent thrust bearing that consists of three water-repellent sections and three untreated sections on the surface of a glass disk were performed. The results verified that this water-repellent thrust bearing functioned well with a low friction, approximately 1/100 of the friction of non treatment glass.

Keywords

• thrust bearing
• slip flow
• water-repellent
• glass
• purified water
• friction reduction