Abstract: Porous gas bearings have been successfully used in high speed rotating machinery and precision devices. When the bearing operates at high speed and heavy load, the temperature rise of gas film would influence the bearing performance significantly. Therefore, the temperature characteristics of the aerostatic porous journal bearing with a surface-restricted layer will be studied. The pressure distribution of the film is calculated by using the Reynolds Equation, and then the temperature field distribution is predicted by coupling the energy equation and heat conduction equation. The results indicate that the temperature of the film increases significantly at high speed. The film temperature increases as load increases, speed increases or bearing clearance decreases. when the bearing clearance is small, the highest temperature of gas film increases little as load increases. Compared with the influence of the load, the speed have more significant impact on the film temperature. Moreover, the thermal deformation of the rotor increases as the thickness of the hollow shaft increases. The predictions indicate that the maximum gas pressure increases and the minimum film thickness decreases when considering the thermal deformation of the rotor.

Key words: aerostatic bearings, porous bearings, surface-restricted layer, temperature of gas film, thermal deformation