A numerical analysis of the elastohydrodynamic lubrication of elliptical contacts

Abstract

In this paper a new numerical procedure is presented for solving the problem of the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) of elliptical contacts. The problem is analysed using a finite difference method and the Newton-Raphson method. A non-uniform grid system is used to reduce the number of grid points and to investigate accurately the behaviour of film shapes. Pressure distributions and film shapes, together with minimum and central film thicknesses have been obtained for various values of, dimensionless parameters. The numerical procedure is fully systematic and the scheme converges rapidly. It is shown that the present numerical scheme can be used generally in the analysis of two-dimensional EHL problems.