The Elasto-Hydrodynamic Lubrication of Soft, Highly Deformed Contacts Under Conditions of Nonuniform Motion

A method is described for the calculation of the film thicknesses in soft, highly deformed contacts for situations where the entrainment velocity is not constant. Two particular results are presented. It is shown that, where there is a rapid reversal of motion, the steady state analysis remains acceptable. However, for a contact reciprocating with a sinusoidal motion, it does not, and here the minimum film thickness occurs at the end of the stroke. The minimum film thickness lies at the end of the contact furthermost from the area swept during the stroke and can only be determined by a dynamic analysis.