Analysis of wide EHL rolling contacts with small superimposed transverse speed oscillation

Abstract

Abstract This paper theoretically investigates the lubricant film build-up in a Newtonian, isothermal wide EHL rolling contact with a small transverse oscillating speed of constant frequency and amplitude. By increasing either elliptical contact width or roller-end gap smoothness, it is found with the aid of perturbation techniques that a) film fluctuations introduced by the transverse speed become smaller in amplitude and limited to the contact edges and, b) the overall minimum film thickness position shifts from the side lobes to the centerline outlet. As a result, the central, average and minimum film thickness values might then all appear to be unaffected by the transverse speed.