Finite element treatment of soft elastohydrodynamic lubrication problems in the finite deformation regime

Soft elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) problem is studied for a reciprocating elastomeric seal with full account of finite configuration changes. The fluid part is described by the Reynolds equation which is formulated on the deformed boundary of the seal treated as a hyperelastic body. The paper is concerned with the finite element (FE) treatment of this soft EHL problem. Displacement-based FE discretization is applied for the solid part. The Reynolds equation is discretized using the FE method or, alternatively, the discontinuous Galerkin method, both employing higher-order interpolation of pressure. The performance of both methods is assessed by studying convergence and stability of the solution for a benchmark problem of an O-ring seal. It is shown that the solution may exhibit spurious oscillations which occur in severe lubrication conditions. Mesh refinement results in reduction of these oscillations, while increasing the pressure interpolation order or application of the discontinuous Galerkin method does not help significantly.