Abstract: A numerical analysis of micro spiral groove thrust bearing with gas lubrication is presented. The spiral curve is changed into straight line by coordinate transformation in order to make it more adaptive to mesh grid. In the new coordinate system, finite volume method (FVM) is employed for the discretization of Reynolds equation with micro scale effect considered. The block-weight approach is used to deal with the non-continuity of the groove-land height, so as to ensure the conservation of the mass flow rate on the boundary of groove land, and then the numerical solution method for the performance of the micro spiral groove thrust bearing with gas lubrication under ultra high speed, is obtained. The Newton-Raphson method is employed to solve the nonlinear equation system so that the pressure distribution as well as the bearing capacity is obtained. Through comparison, it is found that when the micro-scale effect is considered, the bearing capacity of spiral groove thrust bearing is reduced, and the influence of micro-scale effect on the bearing performance is more obvious with the decreasing of bearing clearance.

Key words: Finite volume method, Gas lubrication, Micro scale effects, Spiral groove