Supporting capacity of a ferrofluid ring bearing

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, the supporting capacity of a ferrofluids (FFs) ring bearing is investigated experimentally and numerically. The bearing consists of a floating plate, a substrate, and a FFs ring sandwiched between them. The FFs ring is formed and restrained by applying a ring magnet below the substrate. For a FFs ring with a thickness of 0.25 mm, the maximum supporting force is about 1.78 N. Numerical analysis reveals that, compared with the Laplace force, the magnetic force plays a dominating role in the total supporting force. Such a liquid ring support may give underlying applications for frictionless bearings or precision positioning systems.