摘要 |
<p>A shaft and housing define an opening for receiving the shaft for relative unidirectional rotation. A number of reservoirs contain a lubricating fluid. A hydrodynamic bearing region lies between the number of reservoirs for providing a rotational journal for relative rotation between the shaft and the housing. At least one of the shaft and the housing defines a continuous pattern of herringbone or Vee-shaped pumping grooves or passages which communicate between the reservoirs for pumping the lubricating fluid during relative rotation. The groove pumping creates a pressurised hydrodynamic bearing lubricant film at the bearing region with each groove generating localised unidirectional directional flow of lubricating liquid between the reservoirs along a predetermined axial direction of rotation, wherein some passages create axial flow in a forward direction and the others create axial flow in a reverse direction. The passages ar arranged so that a total of the axial flows from all of the pumping passages is essentially zero.</p> |