A Method of Parameters Estimation of Water-Lubricated Hybrid Journal Bearings for Ultra-Precision Machine Tool Spindle

Water-lubricated hybrid journal bearings have been developed to support the ultra-precision machine tool spindles, due to the prominent properties of high load capacity and stiffness, high rotational accuracy, excellent thermal stability, low power consuming and environmental friendliness. Quasi-analytical procedures are deduced to present a relatively easy and rapid method for estimating of the parameters of the water-lubricated hybrid bearings without resorting to complex full numerical calculation. The procedures are based on the lumped resistance method, which have been extended to the situation dominated by the turbulence and inertia effects. The results show good agreement with the full numerical solution, especially when the bearing operating at moderate eccentricities. The procedures can be taken as a real time analytical tool for parametric study and preliminary engineering design of water-lubricated hybrid journal bearings.