Comprehensive treatise on gas bearing theory, design and application

This book treats the fundamental aspects of gas bearings of different configurations (thrust, radial, circular, conical) and operating principles (externally pressurized, self-acting, hybrid, squeeze), guiding the reader throughout the design process from theoretical modelling, design parameters, numerical formulation, through experimental characterisation and practical design and fabrication.

The book devotes a substantial part to the dynamic stability issues (pneumatic hammering, sub-synchronous whirling, active dynamic compensation and control), treating them comprehensively from theoretical and experimental points of view.

Key features:

• Systematic and thorough treatment of the topic.
• Summarizes relevant previous knowledge with extensive references.
• Includes numerical modelling and solutions useful for practical application.
• Thorough treatment of the gas-film dynamics problem including active control.
• Discusses high-speed bearings and applications.

Air Bearings: Theory, Design and Applications is a useful reference for academics, researchers, instructors, and design engineers. The contents will help readers to formulate a gas-bearing problem correctly, set up the basic equations, solve them establishing the static and dynamic characteristics, utilise these to examine the scope of the design space of a given problem, and evaluate practical issues, be they in design, construction or testing.

About the Author

Farid Al-Bender, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Dr. Ir. Farid Al-Bender is Hon. Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KU Leuven, where his main areas of research included air bearing design and fabrication, tribology, friction modelling and non-linear system dynamics. He is the Director of the consultancy bureau Air Bearing Precision Technology and founder of Leuven Air Bearings company (now LAB Motion systems) where he is a board member.

Reviews

All chapters are written in an authoritative yet easy-to-read manner. The introduction of similarity parameters and scale effects in different chapters and a nice blend of experimental comparisons to theoretical analyses sprinkled throughout will appeal to graduate students and researchers. In summary, this comprehensive book on air bearings is a carefully written, methodical, insightful, and welcome contribution to the tribology literature. -Michael Khonsari, Journal of Tribology, November 2021.

Air bearings are a technology originally developed by the computer industry and which over time has been adopted by precision machining and by very high speed rotating machines. The monographs dedicated to this subject can be counted on the fingers of one hand and the work of Farid Al Bender is an important and welcome contribution. This book gives at the same time solid theoretical bases, presents physical models, details their mathematical formulations and describes a large variety of technical solutions. The reader is delighted by the wealth of information grouped into 17 carefully chosen chapters. -Mihai Arghir, Tribology International, November 2021.

Book Information
ISBN 9781118511497
Author Farid Al-Bender
Format Hardback
Page Count 592
Imprint John Wiley & Sons Inc
Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc
Weight(grams) 1474g
Dimensions(mm) 254mm * 203mm * 38mm