Analysis on the thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication of tapered rollers in opposite orientation

Abstract

Faced to the lubrication of the meshing teeth of helical gears, thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) of two tapered rollers located in opposite orientation was studied numerically. It has been found from the full numerical solution that the lubricating performances of two tapered rollers differ significantly from that of a finite line contact. For tapered rollers, the distributions of pressure and film thickness depend strongly on the distribution of the effective radius in the direction of the roller length, and the distribution of temperature rise depends strongly on the local slide-roll ratio in the direction of the roller length. Side-leakage is inevitable in the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) of two tapered rollers, and thin films are produced in the ends by side-leakage, but the high pressures in the ends could be decreased by the end-shape modification, which is beneficial to the end lubrication. The temperature distribution is interesting, and the lowest temperature in the high-pressure area is close to the ambient temperature, which occurs in a place where the local slid-roll ratio is zero.