Surface Roughness and Structural Inertia in a Mode-Based Mass-Conserving Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Model

Detailed formulations are presented for a mass-conserving, mode-based computational model which includes effects of structural inertia and surface roughness. Performance evaluation of a big end connecting rod hearing is shown to require only a few mode shapes, from which it is found that body forces arising from structural motion strongly influence film thickness history at operating engine speeds. Surface roughness effects on nominal film thickness are found to be small, even in assumed regions of partial lubrication.