An Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication of Elliptical Contacts : Part II - The Effect of Spin Motion

Abstract

A numerical analysis of elastohydrodynamic lubrication of elliptical contacts with both rolling and spinning has been carried out. A finite difference method with non-uniform grid systems and the Newton-Raphson method are applied to solve the problems. The velocity vectors resulting from combined spinning and rolling/sliding motion lead to asymmetric pressure distributions and film shapes. Pressure distributions, film contours and variations of the minimum and central film thicknesses are compared with various spin-roll ratios. Reduction of the minimum film thickness under spinning is remarkable whereas the central film thickness is relatively less. The spin motion have large effect on variations of the minimum film thickness with load parameter which are small in pure rolling/sliding cases. Therefore present numerical scheme can be used in the analysis of general elliptical contact EHL problems and further studies are required.