Stability of Superhydrophobic Ring & Axle Liquid Bearings

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel superhydrophobic surface-based liquid bearing design for MEMS, demonstrating improved stability and drag reduction through modeling and analysis of instability sources.

Contribution

It presents a new surface tension-supported thrust bearing design using patterned superhydrophobic surfaces, with analysis showing superior stiffness and stability.

Findings

The new bearing design reduces drag effectively.

Modeling confirms improved stiffness over existing designs.

Analysis identifies key sources of instability.

Abstract

Friction between contacting solid surfaces is a dominant force on the micro-scale and a major consideration in the design of MEMS. Non-contact fluid bearings have been investigated as a way to mitigate this issue. Here we discuss a new design for surface tension-supported thrust bearings utilizing patterned superhydrophobic surfaces to achieve improved drag reduction. We examine sources of instability in the design, and demonstrate that it can be simply modeled and has superior stiffness as compared to other designs.