In order to evaluate the inlet pressure correctly, the full Navier-Stokes equations are solved numerically for the computational domain which covers the cavity region between pads as well as the bearing film. A nonuiform grid system is adopted to reduce the number of grid points, and the numerical solutions are obtained for a wide range of Reynolds number in laminar regime with various values of the distance between pads. The numerical results show that the inlet pressure is significantly affected by Reynolds number and the distance between pads. An expression for the loss coefficient in terms of Reynolds number and non-dimensional distance between pads is obtained on the basis of the numerical results. It is found that the inlet pressure over the whole range of numerical solutions can be fairly accurately estimated by applying the formula for the loss coefficient to the extended Bernoulli equation.