Stability of Water-Lubricated, Hydrostatic, Conical Bearings With Spiral Grooves for High-Speed Spindles

In this paper, the stability of water-lubricated, hydrostatic, conical bearings with spiral grooves for high-speed spindles is investigated theoretically and experimentally. In these bearing types, pressurized water is first fed to the inside of the rotating shaft and then introduced into spiral grooves through feeding holes located at one end of each spiral groove. Therefore, water pressure is increased due to the effect of the centrifugal force at the outlets of the feeding holes, which results from shaft rotation. In addition, water pressure is also increased by the viscous pumping effect of the spiral grooves. The stability of the proposed bearing is theoretically predicted using the perturbation method, and calculated results are compared with experimental results. It was consequently found that the proposed bearing is very stable at high speeds and theoretical predictions show good agreement with experimental data.