Effect of fluid inertia force on thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication of elliptic contact

Abstract

A non-Newtonian thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) model for the elliptic contact is established, into which the inertia forces of the lubricant is incorporated. In doing so, the film pressure and film temperature are solved using the associated equations. Meanwhile, the elastic deformation is calculated with the discrete convolution and fast Fourier transform (DC-FFT) method. A film thickness experiment is conducted to validate the TEHL model considering the inertia forces. Further, effects of the inertia forces on the TEHL performances are studied at different operation conditions. The results show that when the inertia forces are considered, the central and minimum film thicknesses increase and film temperature near the inlet increases obviously. Moreover, the inertial solution of the central film thickness is closer to the experimental result compared with its inertialess value.