Application of topological optimisation methodology to infinitely wide slider bearings operating under compressible flow

Abstract

It has been over a century since the interest in inventing the optimal topology for bearings arose. A significant achievement was published by Lord Rayleigh, who found the step-bearing geometry which maximise the load-carrying capacity when the classical Reynolds equation is used to model thin film flow of an iso-viscous and incompressible fluid. Since then, new optimisation methods considering some variants of governing equations for finding the best possible bearings have surfaced, one of which will be presented in this paper. Here, two different formulations for compressible flow, i.e. ideal gas and constant bulk modulus compressibility, as well as the classical Reynolds formulation will be used in combination with the method of moving asymptotes for topological optimisation. All three of these problem formulations provide us with unique geometries, which either maximise the load-carrying capacity or minimise friction, for fluids with a wide variety of compressibility.