Jimit R. Patel^1,, G. M. Deheri¹

This article discusses the effect of transverse surface roughness on the behaviour of a magnetic fluid based short bearing considering thin film lubrication at nano-scale. The model of Christensen and Tonder has been adopted to evaluate the effect of surface roughness. The stochastically averaged Reynolds type equation is solved with appropriate boundary conditions leading to the calculation of pressure distribution, in turn, which gives load carrying capacity. The graphical results underline that although, the effect of transverse roughness is adverse in general, this effect reduces when considered with thin film lubrication at nano-scale. The thin film lubrication at nano-scale leads to a sustained improvement in bearing performance characteristics even for lower values of magnetization parameter. Further, this study makes it clear that the formidable combination of couple stress and magnetization goes a long way in minimizing the adverse effect of standard deviation associated with roughness, in case variance (-ve) occurs.

short bearing, magnetic fluid, rough surfaces, nano-scale, load carrying capacity