Transient EHL of Two Surfaces under Elliptical Contact with Non-Newtonian Lubricant

Abstract

This paper presents the effects of a sudden load change and sudden speed change on the performance characteristics of two surfaces under elliptical contact with elastohydrodynamic lubrication. The non-Newtonian lubricant for the research work are modeled based on Carreau viscosity model. The time dependent modified Reynolds equation and elastic equation were formulated for compressible fluid. Perturbation method, Newton Raphson method and full adaptive multigrid method were implemented and solved to obtain the film pressure, film thickness profiles and friction coefficient in the contact regime at various applied loads and speeds. Simulation results show the friction coefficient increase significantly under sudden loads. The minimum film thickness and friction coefficient both decrease significantly as speed is decreased.