Hydrostatic thrust bearing, single center pocket — fixed reference geometry
Reference-geometry calculator (650mm bearing diameter, 0.1mm film, β=0.7 — fixed, matching the original) for a single-pocket, multi-orifice hydrostatic thrust bearing. Vary pocket diameter, supply pressure and fluid properties.
The legacy "please login" demo lock froze D0/h0/β₀ to these exact values. 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. Two formula quirks are preserved literally from the original (a hardcoded 0.325 m bearing radius and a hardcoded 0.7 pressure factor inside the orifice-sizing terms) — moot in practice now that both values are genuinely fixed at those same numbers, but kept for fidelity.
Method & references
- The 4-pocket hydrostatic-thrust-4chamber.ts bearing (Prins Willem-Alexander lock gate) trades this design's simplicity for better self-aligning capability.
- FIXED GEOMETRY: bearing diameter 650 mm, film thickness 0.1 mm, pressure factor β₀=0.7 — the original demo lock froze these three together.
The computation is a literal port of the original client-side JavaScript from /calculators/e13_3a.htm. Results are verified equal to the original by an automated golden-master test. No formula has been re-derived or “improved”.