Improving the pneumatic hammer stability of aerostatic thrust bearing with recess using damping orifices

•An aerostatic bearing is designed to improve the capacity, stiffness and stability.•A ring of shallow recesses is used to improve the capacity and stiffness.•Damping orifices are used to improve the pneumatic hammer stability of the bearing.

In order to improve the pneumatic hammer stability of aerostatic thrust bearing with recess, an array of damping orifices is introduced in the high pressure region of the bearing. The analysis model of pneumatic hammer is established based on modified Reynolds equation and motion equation. The 4th order Runge–Kutta method and FEM (finite element method) are employed to analyze the time-dependent dynamic behaviors of the bearing. Experimental results indicate that the graphical method can be applied to analyze quantitatively the pneumatic hammer stability of aerostatic thrust bearing and damping orifice can be used to improve the pneumatic hammer stability.