Formulation of a reduced order model for the stiffness on elastohydrodynamic line contacts applied to cam-follower mechanism

Abstract

Elastohydrodynamic (EHD) lubrication happens in any situation when elastic deformation occurs due to high hydrodynamic pressure in lubricated contacts. It affects the dynamic behavior of the system and might imply in tribology problems. For many years, the emphasis has been focused on the prediction of EHD pressure and film thickness; mostly central to the contact area and minimum oil film. An approach for boundary layer representation of EHD lubricated contact studies as a function of EHD stiffness parameters is proposed here. The model avoids excessive computational costs and it is promising for applicability in dynamic problem with one or multiples EHD contacts with considerable accuracy. The proposed contact force simulation is applied to a cam-follower mechanism. Since the radius of curvature, the load and the entrainment velocity varies over the cam's rotation cycle, the lubrication study in these kinematics pairs has been limited. In this work, an EHD stiffness map is evaluated to characterize the EHD contact over several different rotation speeds.