Engineering ABC

Calculators · Hydrostatic bearings

Hydrostatic thrust bearing, central pocket, capillary restrictor — fixed reference geometry

Reference-geometry calculator (60mm bearing radius — fixed, matching the original) for a circular hydrostatic thrust bearing with a central pocket fed through a capillary restrictor. Vary pocket radius, film thickness, pressure and fluid properties.

✓ validated against legacyoriginal: /calculators/c11_3.htm
Hydrostatic thrust bearing, central pocket, capillary restrictor — fixed reference geometry — original diagram from /calculators/c11_3.htm
Effective area ratio, Aₑ/A0.715
Dimensionless load, F*0.5
Dimensionless stiffness, S*0.45
Dimensionless flow, Q*1.028
Reynolds number, film0.46
Reynolds number, restrictor364
Capillary diameter, d0.42 10⁻³ m
Load capacity, F11.32 10³ N
Axial stiffness, S340 10⁶ N/m
Flow rate, Q2.775 10⁻⁶ m³/s
Power consumption, N5.549 W

The legacy "please login" demo lock froze the bearing radius R0 to this exact value. Per docs/phase6/OWNER-DECISIONS-BACKLOG.md K4, this fixed geometry is kept exactly as in the original and only the inputs that were already free under the lock are exposed. Generalizing it is a deliberate future decision for Anton, not made here.

Method & references

  • Hydrostatic thrust bearing with central pocket and capillary (viscous-flow) restrictor.
  • FIXED GEOMETRY: bearing radius 60 mm — the original demo lock froze this value.

The computation is a literal port of the original client-side JavaScript from /calculators/c11_3.htm. Results are verified equal to the original by an automated golden-master test. No formula has been re-derived or “improved”.

Hydrostatic thrust bearing, central pocket, capillary restrictor — fixed reference geometry — Engineering ABC