Paper 5: The Hydrosphere

Abstract

A preliminary examination of the bearing indicates that it is not capable of hydrodynamic action as the fluid film is parallel in the direction of motion. However, in practice it has been found that the bearing can support considerable loads. Earlier papers by the authors have examined the proposal of Shaw and Strang that the inertia of the lubricant could account for the load capacity of the bearing. This contention was rejected by the authors, and after other possible explanations had been investigated it was concluded that thermal distortion was the most likely cause of the load-bearing capacity. In this paper recent work will be reported which supports this proposal. The analysis of fluid inertia effects is summarized for a continuous hemispherical seat whose surface is disturbed only by the central lubricant supply hole (the grooveless case). The paper also presents experimental results and an approximate analysis of the thermal distortion for a hydrosphere seat with four lubricant grooves running from the supply hole to the equator along longitudinal lines.