An experimental study is performed to investigate the pressure at the inlet of the pad of pivoted pad thrust bearing which has commonly been ignored in the analysis of the bearings.
A model bearing with one single pivoted pad on the rotating disk is used and lubricant directly fed to be the leading edge of the pad through orifices on the lubricant delivery pipe.
The data measured indicate that the pressure at the inlet of the pad is significantly large so as to be necessarily considered in the analysis of the bearing performance.
The inlet pressure generally increases with increase in bearing load and shaft speed, and is found to be influencial on the performance characteristics such as maximum pressure.
