Measurements of Temperature Distributions around Longitudinally Grooved Rough Surfaces in Sliding Elastohydrodynamic Point Contacts

This paper describes the temperature measurements in the EHL conjunction area comprising a longitudinally grooved steel ball and a sapphire disk under high slip conditions. The authors measured the temperatures of the oil film as well as both the disk and ball surfaces; furthermore, they estimated the temperature profile across the oil film by means of experimental values. The experimental results show that the temperature of the grooved ball surface increased considerably compared with that of a non-grooved ball. The temperatures of the faster surface for the grooved ball became sensitive to the slip ratio, whereas that for the non-grooved surface was almost constant. The temperature distribution had a higher value at the land zones and a lower one at the grooved zones. The temperature rise in the grooved zones varied qualitatively depending on the thermal conditions of both the sliding surfaces.