Abstract:In order to study the features of high load and high stiffness gas bearing with tapered chamber, the complete gas field consisting of supply hole and clearance of bearing is built up. A laminar flow model and a sectional turbulent-laminar flow model were applied to calculate the pressure distribution curves of centrally-fed gas bearing with tapered chamber in different clearances. The theoretical results agreed in general with the experimental ones. The experimental result of load demonstrates its high load capacity, however it has big gas cavity. On the above basis a circular ring gas supply bearing with tapered chamber is presented. The calculation result shows that the improved gas bearing has a high load capacity and greatly decreased gas cavity, with its stability increasing.