The hydrodynamic load support generated by a slip wedge of a slider bearing was studied. The surface slip property was optimized so that a maximum hydrodynamic load support could be obtained. A multi-linearity method was given for the slip control equation of two-dimensional (2-D) wall slip. We investigated 2-D wall slip and the hydrodynamics of a finite length bearing with any values of the surface limiting shear stress. It was found that the hydrodynamic effect of the slip wedge is greater than the traditional geometrical convergent-wedge. Even though the geo- metrical gap is a parallel or divergent sliding gap, the slip wedge still gives rise to a very big hydrodynamic pressure. The optimized slip wedge can give rise to a hy- drodynamic load support as high as 2.5 times of what the geometrical conver- gent-wedge can produce. Wall slip usually gives a small surface friction.
