In this paper, an air bearing with a variable gap diaphragm is suggested in order to improve the dynamic characteristics. Dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of the air bearing with a variable gap diaphragm are obtained theoretically using the perturbation method, for various bearing gap geometry.
Experimental data are compared with theoretical results. For that purpose, a test set-up is built to measure the dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of an air film. Piezoelectric actuator is used to deform the diaphragm bearing surface. The comparison reveals a good agreement between measured and calculated results.
