Analysis of the Pressure Distribution for Press Shoe considering Partially Changed Curvature of Bearing Surface

A press shoe is an element of a machine for squeezing water from wood pulp in the field of manufacturing paper. This is used to compress the pulp enveloped by felt sheet with a large roller. The squeezing force is made by hydraulic pressure. The press shoe has a mechanism similar to a partial hydrostatic bearing. The pressure profile between press shoe and roller affects their squeezing ability, and partial peak pressure can tear the wet pulp. The curvature of the surface of press shoe varies to reduce the peak pressure and increase the mean pressure simultaneously. Therefore, the prediction of pressure distribution considering partially changed curvature of hydrostatic bearing is very important for designing the press shoe. In this study, the difference formulation of Reynolds' equation for partial hydrostatic bearing is by direct numerical method and a computer program to calculate the pressure distribution is developed. We investigate the effect of partially changed curvature of bearing surface on the pressure distribution. Other design parameter for hydrostatic bearing such as depth of pocket and relative velocity are also studied.