Numerical Simulation of Elastohydrodynamic Contact of a Profiled Roller Taking the Geometry of an Inlet Boundary of a Lubricant Film into Account

The spatial problem about the elastohydrodynamic lubricantion of a profiled roller accounting for the complicated geometry of the inlet boundary of the lubricant film is solved. This formulation simulates conditions of fully flooded or insufficient lubricantion, which may contain friction units such as gears and roller bearings. The set of integrodifferential equations with boundary conditions and inequalities describing elastohydrodynamic contact was solved by iterations based on the Newton method. The results demonstrate the significant influence of the geometry of the inlet boundary on the distributions of pressure and thickness of the lubricant film in the contact zone. It was shown that in the place where regions of the inlet boundary are slid into the contact zone, zones with lower values of pressure and thickness of the lubricant film as compared with the case of fully flooded lubrication appear towards the flux of the lubricant.