Entry effects in the narrow, 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, when the step discontinuity is located very close to the bearing's leading edge. Approximate expressions are obtained for the pressure field in the lubricating gap and the influence of the nature of the bearing step on this is investigated. These provide a convenient explicit means for examining the performance characteristics of the bearing.