Experimental studies of pressure distributions in finite slider bearing with single continuous surface profiles on the pads

There are indications in the literature that surface profiling/texturing can have significant and positive influence on the load carrying capacity of hydrodynamic pad thrust bearings. Moreover, due to cost and resource conservation considerations, lubricating oils are being used for much longer period of service than in the past. This causes lubricant to be subjected to higher levels of contamination in spite of good filtrations. In turn, hydrodynamic bearings generally operate in the presence of tiny contaminant particulate. Thus, performance study of hydrodynamic thrust bearing with pads’ surface profiling and contaminated oil are vital. Presently, one finds dearth of experimental research in this area. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to compare the experimental results of pressure distributions in slider bearing with various single continuous surface profiles of pads (cycloidal, catenoidal, polynomial, and plane) using clean and contaminated lubricating oils. Pressure results presented in this paper can provide a platform for validation of theoretical models based on contamination in lubricating oil.