Uniform Equations in the Inlet and Exit Zones of Heavily Loaded Point EHL Contacts Involved in Various Steady Motions

Abstract

Heavily loaded point EHL contacts involved in steady purely transitional, skewed transitional, and transitional with spinning motions are considered. It is shown that in the central parts of the inlet and exit zones of such heavily loaded point EHL contacts the asymptotic equations governing the EHL problem along the lubricant flow streamlines for the above types of contact motions can be reduced to two sets of asymptotic equations: one in the inlet and one the exit zones. The latter sets of equations are identical to the asymptotic equations describing lubrication process in the inlet and exit zones of the corresponding heavily loaded line EHL contact [1]. For each specific motion of a point contact a separate set of formulas for the lubrication film thickness is obtained. For different types of contact motions these film thickness formulas differ significantly [1]. For heavily loaded contacts the discovered relationship between point and line EHL problems allow to apply to point contacts most of the results obtained for line contacts [1,2].