Welcome to the Open Air Bearings repository! This project provides techniques to build and simulate air bearings without expensive tools. Air bearings are mechanical devices that support components using a thin film of air, eliminating the need for solid contact and reducing friction to almost zero.
In steel_epoxy_pads you can find the CAD files for the 3D printed tools used to build the steel-epoxy air bearing pads. Below you find a quick overview:
The simulation folder contains a small and simple python programs to simulate planar air bearings with grooves and pressure inlets from a given design provided as an image file and outputs:
- A plot of the lift force vs gap height, allowing to optimize the design for stiffness and to select an optimal preload value.
- The pressure distribution for a reference gap height as a false color image
- The relative flow rates under the air bearing pad as a false color image
- A animated gif of the pressure distribution for varying gap heights
The simulation uses a simple pipe network model were neighbouring pixels are connected via pipes with flow rate resitrictions derived from the input design. A solution is then computed by solving the associated poisson equation.
Pressure distribution for varying gap heights animiation:
Pressure distribution, relative flow, lift force plot:
- Try it out the simulator or build yourself some air bearings and give feedback
- If you know fluid mechanics, please check the simulation for correctness
- Write documentation and tutrials that explain the usage of the simulation