The pressure field in the gas-lubricated step slider bearing

Singular perturbation methods are applied to an analysis of the operation of an isothermal gas step slider bearing of narrow geometry and operating at moderate bearing numbers. Approximate expressions are obtained for the pressure field in the lubricating gap, as well as the load-carrying capacity of the bearing; and the influence of the nature of the bearing step on those quantities is investigated. Comparisons are made with results obtained using a standard numerical package.