This study aims to investigate numerically the static stiffness characteristics of porous air bearing and to estimate appropriate permeability values of porous medium. In particular, a new roughness model is proposed and implemented into the commercial CFD code (FLUENT Ver. 6.2) by using C language based user subroutine. The predicted results are extensively compared with experimental data. The roughness model is also validated through comparison with the results from open literature. It is found that the predictions for static stiffness are in good agreement with experimental data. Therefore, the suggested model based on the roughness Reynolds number can be used in studying the stiffness characteristics of porous air bearing effectively. In addition, numerical simulations of various diameter size and conditions are conducted. According the results, it is expected that the static stiffness of porous air bearing has the non-linear characteristics.