SUMMARY. Rayleigh bearings are used in mechanism
to realize a load capacity due to the gazeous fluid film. The aim of this
paper is to present a geometric and kinematic model of the bearing, introducing
dimensional parameters to study their influence on of the bearing characteristics.
Mechanics of thin viscous films is used to modelize
the behaviour of the gazeous film which is created at the interface. Utilization
of the finite element method in such a problem is introduced as well as
description of Hermite's elements and the calculation method
A visualization of the pressure field within the
bearing is done, so as to evaluate the influence of the parameters on behaviour
of the gas at the interface. The influence of the step (position and dimension),
on the load capacity and on the mass flow through the bearing is described.
This model yields to an optimal geometry for design
application.