Basics of EHL for practical application

Elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) is present in all lubricated components whose elements roll together, including gears, rolling bearing, cams and constant velocity joints. These are characterised by having very localised and thus very high pressure contact, of order 1 to 3GPa, between the elements. Two important practical properties of EHL contacts are the lubricant film thickness and the friction, and lubricant and machine designers and users need to be able to predict both of these. In principle, they can be determined from full numerical solution of the elastohydrodynamic problem. However, this is quite difficult and time-consuming and requires detailed knowledge of the rheology of the lubricant film at high pressure and shear rate. This paper is aimed at practising engineers and describes alternative approaches, i.e. how EHL can be applied to predict film thickness and friction in practical applications. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.