Influence of material and lubricant parameters on the performance of elastohydrodynamic lubrication under oscillatory motion

The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of material properties and lubricant parameters on the characteristics of transient elastohydrodynamic lubrication in point contact problems, when subjected to oscillatory entrainment speeds across a broad spectrum of frequencies and amplitudes of entrainment velocity. Using the Newton-Raphson approach in combination with the Gauss-Seidel iteration methodology, the Reynolds equation, the film thickness equation that incorporates for surface deformation and the load equilibrium equation are all solved simultaneously. The numerical analysis demonstrated that a similar pattern in the central film thickness is evident across various effective elastic moduli and lubricant parameters. The findings indicated that a lower effective elastic modulus, the thicker in the dynamic oil film thickness over time for various amplitudes. Ultimately, the results demonstrated that the overall thickness of the film is affected by the surrounding viscosity, with increased lubricant viscosity leading to a thicker dynamic oil film across different velocity amplitudes.