Effects of manufacturing errors on tribological characteristics of 3-D textured micro- thrust bearings

The performance sensitivity of textured micro- thrust bearings to manufacturing errors is investigated by means of Navier–Stokes Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations, for incompressible isothermal flow. Bearings of optimized geometry are modelled as three-dimensional micro-channels, consisting of a smooth moving wall, and a stationary wall exhibiting periodic rectangular dimples. Discrepancies in the size and shape of the texture geometry, as well as macroscopic errors in the stationary surface (concavity/convexity and waviness) are considered and parametrically modelled. The effects of manufacturing errors on the bearing load carrying capacity and friction coefficient are analyzed, for representative width-to-length bearing ratios. In a number of cases, manufacturing errors result in improved performance of textured micro- thrust bearings.