Inertia effects in textured hydrodynamic contacts

A flow analysis is carried out for a parallel textured slider to investigate the role of fluid inertia. Numerical simulations are performed for a laminar, two-dimensional, steady and isothermal flow. Stokes solutions are compared with Navier-Stokes solutions at the same Reynolds number. A range of texture depths is analysed. It is shown that there is an optimum value of texture depth that provides maximum load-carrying capacity. It is also shown that there is a critical depth value. Inertia has a negative effect on the load-carrying capacity for depths higher than the critical value, whereas it has a positive effect for lower depths. For a given texture depth, these effects are amplified as the Reynolds number increases. The global effect of inertia is positive when a realistic configuration of a parallel textured slider with a fore-region is considered.