A Three-Dimensional Deterministic Model for Rough Surface Line-Contact EHL Problems

2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Ren ◽  
Dong Zhu ◽  
W. Wayne Chen ◽  
Yuchuan Liu ◽  
Q. Jane Wang

This paper reports the development of a novel three-dimensional (3D) deterministic model (3D L-EHL) for rough surface line-contact mixed-elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) problems. This model is highly demanded because line contacts are found between many mechanical components, such as various gears, roller and needle bearings, cams and followers, and work rolls and backup rolls in metal-forming equipment. The macro aspects of a line-contact problem can be simplified into a two-dimensional (2D) model; however, the topography of contacting rough surfaces, microasperity contacts, and lubricant flows around asperities are often three-dimensional. The present model is based on Hu and Zhu’s unified 3D mixed-EHL model (Hu and Zhu, 2000, “Full Numerical Solution to the Mixed Lubrication in Point Contacts,” ASME J. Tribol., 122(1), pp. 1–9) originally developed for point contacts and the mixed fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based approach for deformation calculation formulated by Chen et al. (2008, “Fast Fourier Transform Based Numerical Methods for Elasto-Plastic Contacts With Normally Flat Surface,” ASME J. Appl. Mech., 75(1), 011022-1-11). It is numerically verified through comparisons with results from the line-contact Hertzian theory and the conventional 2D line-contact smooth-surface EHL formulas. Numerical examples involving 3D sinusoidal and digitized machined surfaces are also analyzed. Sample cases indicate that transverse roughness may yield greater film thickness than longitudinal roughness. This observation is qualitatively in agreement with the trend predicted by Patir and Cheng’s stochastic model (1978, “Effect of Surface Roughness on the Central Film Thickness in EHL Contacts,” Proceedings of the Fifth Leeds-Lyon Symposium on Tribology, London, pp. 15–21). However, the roughness orientation effect does not appear to be quantitatively as great as that shown in the work of Patir and Cheng for the same range of λ ratio.

2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 509-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuchuan Liu ◽  
W. Wayne Chen ◽  
Dong Zhu ◽  
Shuangbiao Liu ◽  
Q. Jane Wang

An elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model for coated surfaces in point contacts has been developed by combining the elastic deformation formulation for the coated surfaces with an EHL model. Inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) is employed first to obtain the influence coefficients (ICs) from the frequency response function (FRF). The subsequent calculation of elastic deformation is performed using the efficient algorithm of discrete convolution and fast Fourier transform (DC-FFT). The coating EHL model is verified by the comparison to available numerical results. The effects of coating on lubrication under various loads, speeds, rheological models, and pressure-viscosity behaviors are numerically investigated. Similar to the observations from dry contact, stiffer coatings in EHL tend to reduce the nominal contact radius but increase the maximum contact pressure, and vice versa for more compliant coatings. However, as coating thickness increases, the influence of coatings on film thickness, including the central and the minimum film thicknesses, does not follow a monotonic variation, and therefore, cannot be predicted by any simple film thickness equation. The reason for that is the pressure viscosity effect which tends to counterbalance the effect of coating. The average friction coefficient in lubricant film increases in stiff coating cases but decreases for compliant coating cases. Furthermore, two possible approaches to improving the minimum film thickness thus reducing friction and wear in mixed lubrication are indicated: a thin stiff coating for conventional EHL and a thick compliant coating for soft EHL.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Keying Chen ◽  
Liangcai Zeng ◽  
Juan Chen ◽  
Xianzhong Ding

A numerical solution for line contact elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) occurring on the rough surface of heterogeneous materials with a group of particles is presented in this study. The film thickness disturbance caused by particles and roughness is considered into the solution system, and the film pressure between the contact gap generated by the particles and the surface roughness is obtained through a unified Reynold equation system. The inclusions buried in the matrix are made equivalent to areas with the same material as that of the matrix through Eshelby’s equivalent inclusion method and the roughness is characterized by related functions. The results present the effects of different rough topographies combined with the related parameters of the particles on the EHL performance, and the minimum film thickness distribution under different loads, running speeds, and initial viscosities are also investigated. The results show that the roughness morphology and the particles can affect the behavior of the EHL, the traction force on a square rough surface is smaller, and the soft particles have more advantages for improving the EHL performance.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Zhu ◽  
Q. Jane Wang

Effect of roughness orientation on lubricant film thickness has been an important issue of surface design, attracting much attention since the 1970 s. A systematical study, however, is still needed for various contact types in an extended range of operating conditions, especially in mixed lubrication cases with film thickness to roughness ratio (λ ratio) smaller than 0.5. The present study employs a deterministic mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) model to investigate the performance of lubricating films in different types of contact geometry, including the line contact, circular contact, and elliptical contacts of various ellipticity ratios. The speed range for analyzed cases covers 11 orders of magnitude so that the entire transition from full-film and mixed EHL down to dry contact (corresponding λ ratio from about 3.5 down to 0.001 or so) is simulated. Three types of machined surfaces are used, representing transverse, longitudinal, and isotropic roughness, respectively. The line contact results are compared with those from the stochastic models by Patir and Cheng (“Effect of Surface Roughness Orientation on the Central Film Thickness in EHD Contacts,” Proc. 5th Leeds-Lyon Symp. on Tribol., 1978, pp. 15–21) and the influence of roughness orientation predicted by the deterministic model is found to be less significant than that by the stochastic models, although the basic trends are about the same when λ > 0.5. The orientation effect for circular or elliptical contact problems appears to be more complicated than that for line contacts due to the existence of significant lateral flows. In circular contacts, or elliptical contacts with the ellipticity ratio smaller than one, the longitudinal roughness may become more favorable than the isotropic and transverse. Overall, the orientation effect is significant in the mixed EHL regime where theλratio is roughly in the range from 0.05 to 1.0. It is relatively insignificant for both the full-film EHL (λ > 1.2 or so) and the boundary lubrication/dry contact (λ < 0.025 ∼ 0.05).


1980 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 183-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Hooke

It is shown that the film thickness in heavily loaded point contacts can be accurately calculated by comparing the inlet and exit zones of the contact with those of an equivalent line contact. The results become increasingly accurate as the extent of the inlet and exit regions is reduced and in the limit yields an exact solution. Even for moderately loaded contacts in which the inlet zone occupies a substantial part of the contact width the results are in close agreement with existing numerical solutions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 08 (02) ◽  
pp. 1650014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Zhou ◽  
Qingbing Dong

This paper develops a three-dimensional (3D) model for a heterogeneous half-space with inclusions distributed periodically beneath its surface subject to elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) line-contact applied by a cylindrical loading body. The model takes into account the interactions between the loading body, the fluid lubricant and the heterogeneous half-space. In the absence of subsurface inclusions, the surface contact pressure distribution, the half-space surface deformation and the lubricant film thickness profile are obtained through solving a unified Reynolds equation system. The inclusions are homogenized according to Eshelby’s equivalent inclusion method (EIM) with unknown eigenstrains to be determined. The disturbed half-space surface deformations induced by the subsurface inclusions or eigenstrains are iteratively introduced into the lubricant film thickness until the surface deformation finally converges. Both time-independent smooth surface contact and time-dependent rough surface contact are considered for the lubricated contact problem.


Author(s):  
A. V. Olver ◽  
D Dini

A difficulty with the standard fast Fourier transform (FFT) perturbation model of roughness in lubricated rolling contacts is that it does not necessarily converge towards the elastic case as the film thickness is reduced; rather it leads to a situation in which all the roughness is completely flattened. This is rarely the case for real engineering surfaces. Here, it is shown that this difficulty can be avoided by carrying out a Fourier transform of the elastostatically flattened roughness and using the resulting (complex) amplitude as the low-film thickness limit of each Fourier component in the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) analysis. Results give a plausible convergence to the elastostatic solution, which is nevertheless consistent with the expected near-full-film EHL behaviour and which becomes identical to the earlier model for roughness that, statically, can be fully flattened. As expected, hydrodynamic action persists at the finest scale, even for very thin films.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Fan-Ming Meng ◽  
Sheng Yang ◽  
Zhi-Tao Cheng ◽  
Yong Zheng ◽  
Bin Wang

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.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuangbiao Liu ◽  
Diann Y. Hua

Line contact problems, such as those seen in spur gears and cam-roller follower systems, are often simplified with the plane-strain assumption and thus modeled by two-dimensional equations. However, in order to address the effects of roughness and textured surfaces, three-dimensional modeling is necessary. The challenge arises when the contact domain is several orders of magnitude greater than the grid size needed to properly describe the surface roughness or texture. Considering the surface geometry of a so-called “line contact,” the contact domain is nonperiodic in contact width direction, but it can be treated as periodic in the contact length direction–semiperiodic line contact problem. Thus, only a section of the entire contact domain is used as the computational domain with a much-reduced size. Based on an in-depth investigation of available algorithms, DC-FFTS and DC-CC-FFT algorithms are proposed. The DC-FFTS algorithm is a modified discrete convolution and fast Fourier transform algorithm with superposition of influence coefficients. The DC-CC-FFT algorithm is a hybrid fast Fourier transform based algorithm, which combines the discrete convolution–FFT and the continuous convolution–FFT methods. The proposed algorithms are used to solve three-dimensional displacement, contact pressure, and stresses for line contact problems. The results are compared with the other available algorithms from literature. The accuracy and efficiency of different algorithms are discussed.


Author(s):  
Ning Ren ◽  
W. Wayne Chen ◽  
Dong Zhu ◽  
Yuchuan Liu ◽  
Q. Jane Wang

This paper reports the development of a novel three-dimensional (3D) deterministic model for rough surface line-contact mixed-EHL problems. This model is of great importance because line contacts are found in many mechanical components. The macro aspects of a line-contact problem can be simplified into a two-dimensional (2D) model, but the topography of contacting rough surfaces, micro asperity contacts, and lubricant flows around asperities are often 3D. The present model is based on Hu and Zhu’s unified mixed EHL model [1] and the mixed FFT-based approach formulated by Chen et al [2]. It is numerically verified through comparisons with results from conventional 2D line-contact EHL theories. Numerical examples involving sinusoidal roughness and digitized 3D machined surfaces are analyzed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 592-594 ◽  
pp. 1371-1375
Author(s):  
Nitesh Talekar ◽  
Punit Kumar

Consideration of surface roughness in steady state EHL line contact is the first step towards understanding the lubrication of rough surface problem. Current paper investigates the use of sinusoidal waviness in the contact; more precisely it gives performance of real fluid in EHL line contact. The effect of various parameters like rolling velocity (U) and maximum Hertzian pressure (ph) on surface roughness by using properties of linear and exponential piezo-viscosity is taken into consideration to evaluate behavior of pressure distribution of load carrying fluid film and film thickness. Full isothermal, Newtonian simulation of EHL problem gives described effects. Spiking or fluctuation of pressure and film thickness curves is expected to show presence of irregularities on the surface chosen and amount of fluctuation depends on certain parameters and intensity of irregularities present. Rolling side domain of-4.5 ≤ X ≤ 1.5 with grid size ∆X=0.01375 is selected. A computer code is developed to solve Reynolds equation, which governs the generation of pressure in the lubricated contact zone is discritized and solved along with load balance equation using Newton-Raphson technique.


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