On the optimization of fluid film bearings

Abstract

In a classical paper slightly after the turn of the century, Lord Rayleigh obtained the optimum one dimensional slider bearing profile, the Rayleigh step. His criteria for optimality was that the load capacity per unit length of the bearing be maximum among all profiles having a given minimum film thickness. Since Rayleigh, an open question has been the determina­tion of the optimum two dimensional bearing profile based on the same criteria as above. In this paper we propose a method for answering that question using algorithms which we have recently developed for this class of problems.