Design of an Aerostatic Thrust Bearing with Pressure-equalizing Grooves

To solve the problem in the space robot's microgravity simulation experiment that lateral interference force/moment exists and the workbench is uneven, a high load capacity, high stiffness round aerostatic thrust bearing with circumferential and radial pressure-equalizing grooves is designed and manufactured, and its load capacity is modeled and numerically analyzed using deformational Reynolds equation. In order to validate the theoretical calculation results, simulation analysis using Fluent is carried out to get the load capacity characteristics, and the influence of the impact created by the high pressure gas on the load capacity is analyzed. Finally, an experiment about the bearing's load capacity characteristics is performed on the standard test platform, and the result is compared with the data of bearing without grooves. It turns out that the structure design and theoretical analysis are correct.